THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


My  Story.    Bj 

J.  ' 


MY  STORY 


I'boto  by  Rakoily-Bergfr 


r<fr~' 


MY    STORY 

BY  TOM  L.  JOHNSON 


EDITED  BY 

ELIZABETH  J.  HAUSER 


NEW  YORK 
B.  W.  HUEBSCH 

* 

1911 


Copyright,  1911,  by 

Columbian  Sterling  Publishing  Co. 

Copyright,  1911,  by 

B.  W.  HUEBSCH 

All  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IN  Ut  S.  A. 


College 
Library 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

HENRY  GEORGE 


1279673 


Acknowledgment  is  hereby  made  of  the  assistance  in  the 
preparation  of  this  story  of  my  friend,  Elizabeth  J. 
Hauser,  without  whose  co-operation  it  would  not  have  been 
written. 

TOM  L.  JOHNSON. 
Cleveland,  Ohio, 
January  29,  1911. 


PACE 

xi 

XXXV 


I.  A  MONOPOLIST  IN  THE  MAKING      .     >.    :.:    :.       i 

II.  THE  MONOPOLIST  MADE      ,;     .     ...    >.,    ,.:    ;.      9 

III.  BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS    ....     ,.;     .     .     17 

IV.  THE  TRAINING  OF  A  MONOPOLIST   ....     28 
V.  THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT    ...     34 

VI.  HENRY  GEORGE,  THE  MAN  AND  His  BOOKS    .     48 
VII.  THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS      ....     59 
VIII.  THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS  (Continued)  .     68 
IX.  SOME  PERSONAL  INCIDENTS  AND  STRAY  OBSER- 
VATIONS    82 

X.  THE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY 89 

XI.  MORE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY 98 

XII.  ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND      ....   108 

XIII.  THE  CITY  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  TAX  SCHOOL  121 

XIV.  How  RAILROADS  RULE    .......     .     .     .  132 

XV.  THE  WAY  OUT    ....     :.:    ,.,    ;.     .     .  145 

XVI.  GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION    .     ,.j    ,.,     .     .  156 

XVII.  MAKING  MEN .......  167 

XVIII.  SUPREME  COURT  BLOCKS  PROGRESS  ....  185 

XIX.  STATE  CAMPAIGNS      .........     .     .     .     .  195 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX.  How  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS    .  206 

XXI.  PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  AND  THE  "  PRESS  " 

GUARANTEE 221 

XXII.  FIRST  THREE-CENT-FARE  CAR 237 

XXIII.  AFTER  Six  YEARS  OF  WAR 250 

XXIV.  THE  BURTON-JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN  ....  264 
XXV.  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT 276 

THE  LAST  CHAPTER  (by  Elizabeth  J.  Hauser)  .  295 

APPENDIX 3*5 

INDEX 319 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Tom  L.  Johnson Frontispiece 

OPPOSITE    PAGE 

Tom  L.  Johnson  at  seventeen 10 

A.  V.  du  Pont ,.,..;.     10 

Bfdermann  du  Pont       .  ....>[.,    :.:    T.     10 

Tom  L.  Johnson  at  twenty-six  .  .  .  .  .  ,:  :.  :.:  .  18 
Johnson  Company  Works,  early  picture  .  ;.:  >i  >  ;.i  :.;  28 
Johnson  Company  Works,  recent  picture  .  .  .:  :.  .  .  28 
Tom  L.  Johnson  at  thirty-two  .....  >  .  i.;  L..  32 
Certificate  issued  by  the  Johnson  Company  .  .  .  :.  ,..  46 

Henry  George .     56 

Tom  L.  Johnson  between  thirty-six  and  thirty-eight  .      .      .     62 

The  Lorain  Steel  Company  plant 76 

"  Chance  was  responsible  for  my  tent  meeting  campaigning  "  .     84 
Hazen  S.  Pingree     ............     96 

Frederic  C.   Howe   .      .      ..     r.:     ,.      .      .      .     ,.      .      .      .    120 

William  J.  Springborn  .      .      .     ,.      .     :.;     .;     >      .      .      .120 

Edward  W.  Bemis • 132 

The  Johnson  mansion  on  Euclid  avenue 148 

Surveying  at  Franklin  Circle  for  three-cent  fare  line  .      .      .162 

Laying  the  first  rails  for  the  three-cent  line 162 

Pitching  tent  in  the  Public  Square,  Cleveland 170 

Fred  Kohler,  Chief  of  Police 182 

Harris  R.  Cooley 182 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

cause  he  might  expect  to  derive  any  pleasure  from  it,  but 
because  it  was  the  only  kind  of  action  left  him,  and  he  had 
been  persuaded  that  his  story  of  the  Cleveland  fight  might 
be  of  some  use  to  other  cities  in  their  struggles  to  be  free. 
By  sheer  force  of  will  he  dictated  "  My  Story  "  after  he 
became  so  ill  that  the  slightest  physical  or  mental  effort 
was  a  severe  strain.  He  had  been  wont  to  say  that  he 
wanted  to  "  die  in  harness,"  "  just  stub  his  toe  and  stumble 
into  his  grave  I  "  And  he  did  "  die  in  harness."  The 
narrative  breathes  throughout  all  the  strength,  the  good 
cheer,  the  hope,  which  animated  his  working  and  fighting 
days. 

Big,  brave,  dauntless,  resourceful  soul!  He  made  his 
wish  come  true. 

Had  Mr.  Johnson  lived  longer  he  probably  would  have 
added  nothing  of  a  personal  nature  to  his  story.  It  was 
with  extreme  difficulty  that  he  was  induced  to  include  the 
few  delightful  personal  anecdotes  which  lend  such  charm 
to  the  early  chapters.  "  Those  things  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  fight  against  Privilege,"  he  would  protest,  and 
he  could  not  be  made  to  understand  that  anything  which 
appertained  solely  to  himself  was  of  any  interest  or  value. 

One  is  disposed  to  respect  this  lack  of  self-conscious- 
ness almost  to  the  point  of  adding  nothing  to  the  narra- 
tive. It  is  because  the  readers  of  this  book  are  entitled 
to  an  account  of  the  year  and  three  months  of  Mr.  John- 
son's life  after  he  left  the  mayor's  office  in  Cleveland  that 
the  last  chapter  of  the  volume  has  been  written. 

Aside  from  the  preparation  of  this  last  chapter  the 
editing  of  "  My  Story  "  has  consisted  only  in  dividing 
the  book  into  chapters  and  supplying  their  headings,  and, 
here  and  there,  where  some  principle  or  policy  seemed  to 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

demand  emphasis  or  explanation,  in  elaborating  a  little 
the  original  statement.  When  this  has  been  done  the 
elaboration  is  given  in  Mr.  Johnson's  words.  Although 
he  was  not  a  writer,  it  happens  that  a  public  address  made 
by  him  upon  the  question  of  Privilege  —  an  address  which 
treats  so  comprehensively  of  the  cause,  the  results,  and  the 
cure  of  Privilege,  that  little  or  nothing  seems  to  be  left  to 
be  said  on  the  subject  —  was  taken  down  and  preserved. 
This  address  has  served  as  a  reference  from  which  to  draw 
such  elucidation  as  has  seemed  necessary. 

For  readers  who  did  not  know  Mr.  Johnson,  and  who 
cannot  read  between  the  lines  of  "  My  Story  "  much  which 
the  author  has  not  told,  a  note  of  introduction  is  offered. 
He  has  said  so  little  of  the  overwhelming  odds  against 
which  he  fought  and  conquered,  of  the  fierceness  of  the 
storm  which  raged  about  him  during  the  whole  of  the 
Cleveland  conflict,  of  the  daring  and  original  methods  in 
political  work  by  which  he  forced  achievements  possible 
to  every  large  cityl  There  is  humor  and  sweetness  and 
poise  and  power  to  be  found  in  "  My  Story,"  but  it  is  the 
story  of  a  man  who  never  knew  what  a  momentous  figure 
he  was.  Not  the  least  of  his  greatness  is  his  uncon- 
sciousness of  it. 

Tom  L.  Johnson  was  a  pioneer  in  politics  in  the  doing 
of  things  because  they  were  right  rather  than  because  they 
were  expedient.  He  believed  in  the  people,  and  he  ad- 
dressed himself  to  them  with  a  sincerity,  vigor,  and  fresh- 
ness of  method  as  unusual  as  they  are  effective.  Some- 
times he  reached  them  in  mass  as  through  his  "  picture 
show  "  of  taxation  injustices,  a  device  which  antedated  by 
many  years  the  present  use  of  picture  illustration  in  all 
kinds  of  social  problems.  Sometimes  he  made  his  appeal 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

personally,  as  when,  after  sitting  in  the  gallery  of  the 
State  House  and  listening  to  the  most  violent  attacks  upon 
himself  and  his  measures,  he  would  hunt  up  the  author  of 
these  attacks,  never  to  say  a  word  in  his  own  defense,  but 
always  to  try  to  convince  his  antagonist  of  the  justice  of 
the  legislation  in  question.  An  anecdote  illustrating  his 
success  in  this  direct  method  of  argument  is  the  following : 

A  few  years  ago  when  the  Ohio  legislature  was  pro- 
viding for  one  of  its  periodic  investigations  of  the  city 
government  of  Cincinnati,  a  hostile  member  introduced  a 
bill  calling  for  a  similar  investigation  of  Cleveland.  On 
the  very  heels  of  this  action  Mayor  Johnson  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  Representative  (now  Senator)  John  N.  Stockwell 
of  the  Cleveland  delegation  telling  him  that  he  would  ar- 
rive in  Columbus  late  that  night  and  asking  him  to  ar- 
range for  an  immediate  interview  with  the  member  who 
had  introduced  the  Cleveland  investigation  bill. 

"  I  wondered  what  in  the  world  Mr.  Johnson  could 

want  of  G ,"  says  Senator  Stockwell  in  relating  this 

incident,  "  but  I  hunted  him  up  and  arranged  for  the  in- 
terview. G supposed,  of  course,  the  mayor  was  com- 
ing to  take  him  to  task  for  his  bill.  The  mayor  came, 

saw  G ,  told  him  that  what  he  wanted  was  his  support 

of  some  important  street  railway  legislation,  explained 
the  measure,  convinced  G of  the  justice  of  it,  and  in- 
fused him  with  so  much  of  his  own  enthusiasm  that  that 
man  hustled  around  the  whole  of  the  night  seeing  other 
members  in  the  interests  of  Mr.  Johnson's  bill,  and  sup- 
ported it  upon  the  floor  of  the  house  the  next  day.  Mr. 
Johnson  went  back  to  Cleveland  without  ever  referring 

to  G 's  bill  to  have  Cleveland  investigated.  When  I 

asked  him  later  why  he  chose  G of  all  men  to  push 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

his  measure  and  lead  in  the  fight  for  it,  he  replied  that 

he  thought  G was  a  strong  man  and  as  he  seemed 

to  be  our  most  determined  enemy  he  was  clearly  the  most 
necessary  convert  to  our  measure.  He  said  it  would  have 
been  foolish  to  waste  precious  time  in  seeing  those  who 
would  be  friendly  anyway." 

Mr.  Johnson's  fights  with  Republican  legislators  were 
mild  in  comparison  with  his  fights  with  members  of  his 
own  party.  He  was  the  first  political  leader  in  the  United 
States  to  ask  his  supporters  to  vote  against  candidates  of 
his  own  party  and  for  those  of  the  opposition.  In  his 
campaign  for  governor  he  violated  all  political  precedent 
when  he  refused  to  permit  many  of  the  customary  ex- 
penditures. A  rich  man,  or  at  least  reputed  to  be  rich, 
he  not  only  refused  to  spend  money  extravagantly,  but  he 
insisted  that  county  committees  of  the  Democratic  party 
should  defray  the  legitimate  expenses  of  their  campaigns. 
Seventy-five  dollars  he  demanded  from  each  county  in 
which  he  pitched  his  tent  as  part  of  the  expense  of  trans- 
porting it.  He  alienated  all  the  spoilsmen,  all  the  old 
line  machine  politicians,  and  every  State  convention  found 
them  in  a  struggle  with  him  for  supremacy.  Sometimes 
he  carried  the  day  and  was  able  to  control  both  platform 
utterances  and  choice  of  candidates.  Between  these  two 
he  preferred  always  to  formulate  the  platform,  for,  in  his 
political  programme,  principles  were  ever  of  more  im- 
portance than  persons.  And  sometimes  he  lost  out,  leav- 
ing a  defeat  famous  because  of  the  fine  spirit  in  which  it 
was  taken.  One  of  Mr.  Johnson's  epigrams  connects 
itself  with  such  a  defeat: 

At  the  State  convention  in  1908,  when  he  was  successful 
in  forcing  the  adoption  of  a  radical  platform,  his  candi- 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

date  for  governor,  Atlee  Pomerene,  was  beaten  by  Judson 
Harmon.  It  was  a  crushing  blow.  Mr.  Johnson  had 
put  up  a  tremendous  fight. 

'  What  will  Johnson  do?  "  was  the  query  that  buzzed 
over  that  great  audience  in  the  convention  hall.  Feeling 
was  still  at  white  heat,  yet,  before  there  was  time  for  re- 
flection or  consideration,  before  the  tumult  had  subsided, 
with  his  friends  crestfallen  and  disappointed  at  his  back, 
his  enemies  exultant,  and  yet  already  apprehensive,  turn- 
ing, as  by  a  common  impulse  to  look  at  him,  Mr.  Johnson 
spoke,  and  this  is  what  he  said,  "  I  make  my  fights  before 
nominations,  not  afterwards." 

The  soundness  of  Mr.  Johnson's  forecast  of  popular 
will  is  seen  in  many  directions  to-day.  Hardly  a  progres- 
sive measure  in  evidence  in  the  political  thought  of  the 
hour  but  was  anticipated  and  championed  by  him.  Year 
after  year  he  spent  a  large  part  of  his  time  at  the  State 
capital  urging  the  passage  of  measures  freeing  cities  from 
the  grip  of  franchise  corporations.  One  session  he  took 
rooms  with  members  of  the  Cleveland  delegation  and 
spent  months  about  the  State  House  endeavoring  to  secure 
juster  laws  on  taxation,  laws  for  municipal  ownership  and 
home  rule  for  cities.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  agitate 
for  the  initiative  and  referendum  and  recall,  and  was  an 
enthusiastic  advocate  of  the  short  ballot.  After  he  be- 
came convinced  of  the  justice  of  woman  suffrage  he  made 
several  speeches  for  it,  the  most  notable  one  in  the  midst 
of  his  mayoralty  contest  with  Mr.  Burton.  There  may 
be  politicians  who  would  do  for  the  woman's  cause  now 
what  Mr.  Johnson  did  then,  but  there  wasn't  another 
equally  prominent  public  man  in  the  United  States  who 
would  have  done  it  at  that  time. 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

His  moral  courage,  coupled  with  an  intense  desire  to 
have  social  wrongs  corrected,  caused  him  often  to  chal- 
lenge the  authority  of  those  in  high  places.  He  had  an 
hour's  interview  with  President  Roosevelt  during  the  lat- 
ter days  of  the  Colonel's  administration,  and  as  he  was 
taking  his  leave,  Mr.  Johnson  said,  "  The  difference  be- 
tween you  and  me,  Mr.  President,  is  this:  you  are  after 
law-breakers,  I  am  after  the  law-makers.  You  would 
put  a  man  in  jail  for  stealing;  I  would  prevent  the  theft." 

When  the  trust  question  was  a  paramount  issue  in 
American  politics  Mr.  Johnson  asked  William  Jennings 
Bryan,  who  was  a  guest  in  his  house,  what  he  would  do  to 
solve  that  problem  if  he  were  in  a  position  of  real  power 
as  President  of  the  United  States  with  a  friendly  Con- 
gress and  all  the  machinery  of  government  to  aid  him. 
As  Mr.  Bryan  suggested  remedy  after  remedy,  Mr.  John- 
son showed  him  how  he,  a  monopolist,  a  beneficiary  of 
special  privilege,  could  evade,  ignore  or  safely  violate  such 
laws  as  Mr.  Bryan  was  proposing.  By  practical  illustra- 
tions he  demonstrated  the  futility  of  all  legislation  which 
does  not  strike  Privilege  at  its  root  which  is  land  monop- 
oly. 

Mr.  Johnson  did  not  hesitate,  upon  occasion,  to  go  to 
leading  Democratic  office-holders  in  his  own  State  and  give 
them  the  benefit  of  his  experience  with  and  observation 
of  dishonest  party  workers.  For  their  own  protection 
and  the  good  of  the  state  he  warned  these  officials  against 
the  traitors  in  their  political  camps.  Such  service  was 
not  always  graciously  received,  but  time  usually  justified 
Mr.  Johnson's  predictions. 

To  his  administration  of  Cleveland's  affairs  Mr.  John- 
son brought,  besides  his  native  resourcefulness,  all  his 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

training  as  a  big  business  man.  Himself  efficient  to  the 
last  degree  he  insisted  upon  efficiency  in  others,  and  every 
department  of  the  city  government  showed  results  because 
of  this. 

He  applied  the  merit  system  to  the  water  works  and 
health  departments,  though  not  required  by  law  to  do  so. 
Flat  rates  were  abolished  for  water  service,  meters  in- 
stalled and  the  cost  of  water  reduced  for  ninety  per  cent. 
of  the  consumers.  Waste  was  stopped  and  in  the  four 
years  ending  in  1909  over  one  million  dollars  had  been 
saved  to  water  users. 

When  Mr.  Johnson  became  mayor  the  city  was  dispos- 
ing of  its  garbage  under  the  contract  plan  at  an  annual 
cost  of  $69,000.  When  the  contract  expired  the  city 
bought  the  plant,  and  the  very  first  year  under  municipal 
ownership  and  operation  reduced  ten  thousand  more  tons 
of  garbage  than  under  the  contract  method,  and  at  a  cost 
of  $10,000  less;  and  this,  notwithstanding  a  reduction  in 
the  hours  of  employes  and  an  increase  of  their  wages. 
Later  the  collection  of  ashes,  waste  paper  and  refuse  was 
also  undertaken  by  the  city. 

In  1900  the  electric  light  monopoly  was  charging  the 
city  $87.60  a  year  for  each  light.  By  the  time  Mr.  John- 
son went  out  of  office,  competition  of  the  municipal  light- 
ing plant  had  reduced  this  cost  to  $54.96  per  light. 

Mr.  Johnson  instituted  a  building  code  that  was  a  model 
for  other  cities,  established  meat  and  dairy  inspection, 
barred  milk  from  tubercular  cows,  saved  householders  a 
million  dollars  a  year  by  compelling  the  use  of  honest 
weights  and  measures,  created  a  forestry  department  for 
the  protection  of  the  city's  trees,  paved  several  hundred 
miles  of  street,  and  substituted  for  the  old  practice  of 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

sweeping  the  superior  method  of  cleaning  the  streets  by 
washing  them.  He  built  public  bath-houses,  comfort  sta- 
tions, and  shelter  sheds,  laid  out  baseball  diamonds, 
cricket  fields  and  golf  links,  encouraged  band  concerts  in 
the  parks  in  summer  and  skating  carnivals  in  winter,  es- 
tablished May  Day  and  Arbor  Day  festivities. 

People  were  just  people  to  Mr.  Johnson  and  when, 
soon  after  his  first  election  as  mayor,  he  deprived  the  poor 
of  a  means  of  gambling  with  pennies  and  nickels  by  sweep- 
ing six  thousand  slot  machines  out  of  the  city,  he  did  not 
neglect  to  deal  a  blow  to  rich  gamblers  by  following  this 
action  with  a  prohibition  of  pool  selling  at  the  Cleveland 
Driving  Park  when  the  time  for  the  fall  races  arrived. 

These  many  and  varied  public  benefits  have  been  ac- 
cepted so  much  as  a  matter  of  course  that  one  is  disposed 
to  wonder  whether  the  citizens  of  Cleveland  think  they 
have  been  produced  by  some  automatic  agency  and  with- 
out human  power. 

All  of  these  activities  cost  money,  but  Mr.  Johnson  in- 
stituted a  purchasing  department  for  the  city  which  saved 
money  by  getting  a  two  per  cent,  discount  for  the  prompt 
payment  of  all  bills,  and  established  many  business  econo- 
mies. The  city's  assets  have  increased  more  than  twice 
as  much  as  her  bonded  indebtedness.  And  all  of  this 
work  was  carried  on  honestly.  Cleveland,  under  Mayor 
Johnson,  was  free  from  graft.  No  scandal  ever  attached 
to  the  administration.  The  proof  of  this  assertion  was 
brought  out  by  those  who  were  his  enemies.  Year  after 
year  a  hostile  State  administration  sent  expert  accountants 
to  investigate  the  city's  accounts;  unfriendly  newspapers 
did  the  same  thing;  franchise  corporations  employed  de- 
tectives to  hunt  for  something  wrong;  all  with  the  same 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

result!  There  was  no  graft.  Mr.  Steffens  was  justified 
in  his  estimate  of  Mr.  Johnson,  as  "  the  best  mayor,"  and 
of  Cleveland  as  "  the  best  governed  city  in  the  United 
States."  ' 

Most  of  these  things  Mr.  Johnson  has  ignored  in  his 
story.  They  were  so  much  a  part  of  the  day's  work  with 
him  that  it  would  no  more  have  occurred  to  him  to  tell 
them  than  to  relate  that  he  put  on  his  shoes  when  he  got 
up  in  the  morning. 

The  things  he  does  tell  are  told  simply,  and  even  the 
most  unpleasant  of  them  without  any  bitterness.  As  a 
year  only  had  elapsed  between  the  time  of  his  defeat  as 
mayor  of  Cleveland  and  the  day  he  set  himself  seriously 
to  the  task  of  telling  his  story  this  absence  of  bitterness 
cannot  be  attributed  to  the  softening  influences  of  time; 
nor  can  it  be  ascribed  to  the  mellowing  hand  of  age  for 
Mr.  Johnson  was  not  old.  Up  to  his  last  hour  of  con- 
sciousness he  was  living  ahead  of  the  generation  just  born, 
and  there  are  those  who  believe  that  this  would  have  been 
so  had  he  lived  to  be  eighty-six  years  of  age  instead  of 
dying  as  he  did  at  fifty-six. 

It  must  be,  then,  that  even  in  the  heat  of  the  battle 
when  feeling  ran  highest  he  was  not  affected  by  it,  for  not 
only  had  all  bitterness  vanished  when  he  began  to  write, 
but  he  had  actually  forgotten  many  of  his  most  trying  and 
cruel  experiences. 

Contrast  his  statement  that  he  was  hissed  but  once  in 
his  life  and  that  at  a  meeting  in  Brooklyn  with  this  from 
the  pen  of  a  man  who  participated  in  nearly  all  of  Mr. 
Johnson's  campaigns: 

"  During  his  dozen  campaigns  while  mayor  it  was  his  habit  to 
insist  upon  questions  from  the  audience;  he  asked  for  hard  ones, 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

*  mean  '  ones,  he  called  them ;  he  liked  that  kind  best.  No  man 
was  apparently  more  vulnerable.  He  had  been  in  the  street  rail- 
way business  all  his  life  and  he  opened  up  his  whole  life  to  scrutiny 
and  gayly  acknowledged  where  acknowledgment  was  coming, 
and  answered  where  an  answer  was  required.  Frequently  his 
meetings  were  on  the  verge  of  riot ;  in  the  east  end  where  feeling 
was  most  vindictive  and  but  a  handful  of  his  friends  would  be 
present  he  would  stand  on  the  edge  of  a  jeering,  sometimes  a 
hissing  crowd  that  packed  the  tent  far  out  to  the  street  lines, 
smilingly  leaning  on  the  edge  of  the  table  until  the  uproar  quieted. 
Then  he  would  frequently  win  the  meeting  by  a  simple  story  or 
sweet  appeal.  Night  after  night  he  met  this  kind  of  thing,  speak- 
ing possibly  half  a  dozen  times  in  from  one  to  three  tents  and  in 
as  many  more  halls,  and  apparently  never  wearying  of  it.  He 
seemed  to  court  this  kind  of  exposure  to  attack." 

Again,  in  discussing  the  Depositors  Savings  and  Trust 
Company,  he  dismisses  the  relation  of  other  banks  to  the 
Depositors  in  a  single  sentence,  "  A  great  many  of  the 
local  banks  were  unfriendly,  but  a  few  of  them  acted  very 
nicely  indeed."  That  is  all,  though  it  is  a  matter  of  com- 
mon knowledge  that  the  organization  of  the  Depositors 
was  necessary  in  order  to  provide  the  low-fare  movement 
with  a  friendly  bank  and  to  prevent  its  transactions  from 
being  made  public  and  thereby  circumvented,  that  it  had 
constantly  to  combat  rumors  against  it  set  in  motion  by 
hostile  interests,  and  that  from  the  very  beginning  it  was 
compelled  to  fight  against  a  combination  of  the  banking 
interests  of  Cleveland  to  which  it  finally  had  to  succumb. 

He  says  nothing  to  indicate  that  he  had  any  personal 
feeling  in  connection  with  the  strike  inaugurated  by  the 
old  and  still  hostile  street  railway  managers  directly  after 
the  Municipal  Traction  Company  took  possession  of  the 
street  railways.  He  had  had  a  strike  on  one  of  his  own 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

street  railroads  but  once.  That  lasted  just  ten  minutes. 
He  went  in  person  to  the  men  and  told  them  that  he 
thought  what  they  were  asking  for  was  reasonable  and  he 
was  prepared  to  give  it  to  them.  He  had  always  paid 
good  wages  and  had  encouraged  labor  unions  among  his 
employes.  While  that  Cleveland  strike  was  on  he  spent 
hours  of  each  day  in  a  machine  shop  working  with  his 
hands  on  the  pay  enter  fare-box  which  he  had  invented  and 
with  which  he  was  preparing  to  equip  the  cars.  Did  he 
resort  to  manual  labor  and  abandon  his  mind  to  the  mental 
absorption  of  mechanical  problems  that  the  iron  might  not 
enter  his  soul?  He  never  told. 

So  little  reference  is  made  to  the  persecutions  and  cruel- 
ties of  the  street  railway  company  and  the  business  inter- 
ests allied  with  it  that  the  reader  whose  only  source  of 
information  is  Mr.  Johnson's  own  story  might  perhaps 
conclude  that  Cleveland  was  quite  different  from  Detroit 
and  Toledo  and  Chicago  and  San  Francisco  and  other 
cities  where  the  franchises  of  public  service  corporations 
have  been  threatened.  But  in  Cleveland,  as  in  these  other 
cities,  there  was  organized  as  if  by  instinct  a  sympathetic, 
political-financial-social  group  whose  power  and  influence 
made  itself  known  the  moment  it  was  touched.  It  in- 
cluded the  banks  and  trust  companies  with  their  directors. 
Banks  that  did  not  sympathize  with  this  conspiracy  were 
coerced  by  fear  into  compliance  with  the  will  of  the 
stronger  institutions.  Through  the  banks,  manufacturers, 
wholesale  and  retail  merchants  were  reached.  Business 
men  who  openly  sympathized  with  the  low-fare  movement 
were  called  to  the  directors'  rooms  in  the  banks  and  ad- 
vised, sometimes  in  guarded  language,  that  their  loans 
might  be  called  or  their  credit  contracted.  Only  one  bank 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

of  any  size  dared  identify  itself  with  the  low-fare  railroad 
and  it  was  made  to  suffer  some  of  the  stings  of  ostracism. 
Many  men  who  bought  low-fare  stock  had  to  do  it  se- 
cretly. Contractors,  professional  and  business  men  were 
cowed  at  meetings  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  by  the 
suggestion  that  they  would  lose  business ;  retailers  who 
voted  for  Mayor  Johnson  and  let  their  position  be  known 
were  boycotted  or  threatened  with  boycott.  The  profes- 
sional classes  were  allied  with  the  business  interests.  The 
lawyers  were  almost  a  unit.  At  one  time  fourteen  of  the 
leading  law  firms  of  the  city  were  employed  against  the 
movement.  Many  physicians  and  in  a  large  measure  the 
clergy  were  affiliated  with  this  class.  There  were  a  few 
notable  exceptions  in  both  the  Catholic  and  Protestant 
churches.  Dean  Charles  D.  Williams  of  Trinity  Cathe- 
dral, now  Bishop  of  Michigan,  never  flagged  in  his  devo- 
tion to  Mr.  Johnson  or  to  the  cause  for  which  he  stood. 
The  clerks  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  business  interests 
and  all  who  were  seeking  favor  socially,  professionally  or 
commercially,  lined  up  with  Privilege. 

And  there  was  always  a  portion  of  the  press  to  be  reck- 
oned with!  Two  newspapers  owned  respectively  by  the 
family  of  one  of  Mr.  Johnson's  most  powerful  political 
enemies  and  by  attorneys  and  stockholders  of  the  street 
railway  company,  persistently  misrepresented  the  people's 
movement,  and,  through  paid  advertisements,  editorially 
and  otherwise,  they  made  charges  of  criminality  and  dis- 
honesty against  Mr.  Johnson,  implying  that  the  movement 
was  part  of  his  plan  to  make  money,  to  steal  the  street 
railways  of  the  city  for  private  profit.  Brutal  cartoons 
accompanied  their  news  stories  or  illustrated  their  editorial 
point  of  view. 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

Yet  when  Mr.  Johnson  died,  a  little  more  than  a  year 
after  he  went  out  of  office,  these  newspapers  joined  with 
thousands  of  others  in  proclaiming  their  belief  in  his  sin- 
cerity and  honesty.  He  had  made  mistakes,  they  said,  but 
not  a  shadow  of  a  suggestion  of  bad  faith  did  they  charge 
up  to  him. 

The  newspaper  persecution  of  Mr.  Johnson  was  not 
confined  to  Cleveland.  A  publicity  bureau  supplied  the 
country  papers  of  the  State  with  material  well  designed  to 
convince  the  unthinking  and  the  uninformed  that  in  the 
Cleveland  mayor  were  reincarnated  for  the  temptation 
and  fall  of  Ohio  all  the  qualities  ascribed  to  the  Satan  of 
the  early  orthodox  church. 

To  all  of  this  was  added  the  coercive  power  of  social 
ostracism.  It  was  carried  into  the  clubs  and  employed 
against  all  who  distantly  believed  in  or  liked  Mr.  Johnson. 

"  For  the  greater  part  of  nine  years,"  writes  Frederic 
C.  Howe,  "  Cleveland  was  an  armed  camp.  There  was 
but  one  line  of  division.  It  was  between  those  who  would 
crucify  Mr.  Johnson  and  all  of  his  friends,  and  those  who 
believed  in  him.  I  doubt  if  any  of  the  border  cities  like 
Washington  and  Covington  during  the  Civil  War  were 
more  completely  rent  asunder  than  was  Cleveland  during 
those  years.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  wars  of  the  Guelphs 
and  Ghibellines  in  the  Italian  cities  were  more  bitter,  more 
remorseless,  more  cruel  than  this  contention  in  Cleveland. 
If  any  kind  of  cruelty,  any  kind  of  coercion,  any  kind  of 
social,  political  or  financial  power  was  left  untried  in  those 
years  to  break  the  heart  of  Mr.  Johnson,  I  do  not  know 
what  or  when  it  was." 

How  he  contrived  to  keep  his  spirit  strong  and  glad  is 
something  one  may  not  hope  to  comprehend.  At  one 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

period  in  the  street  railway  fight  when  the  entire  city  of 
Cleveland  seemed  to  have  united  in  a  clamor  for  settle- 
ment and  when  even  his  most  trusted  friends  and  loyal 
followers  were  urging  concessions  which  Mr.  Johnson's 
far-seeing  vision  would  not  permit  him  to  make,  when,  for 
a  time,  he  stood  utterly  alone,  not  a  word  of  discourage- 
ment, not  a  sign  of  irritation  escaped  him.  But  when  his 
"  boys  "  finally  rallied  to  his  support  and  a  united  plan 
of  action  was  agreed  upon  once  more,  the  mayor  was  so 
happy  that  a  friend,  knowing  nothing  of  the  occurrence 
just  past,  commented  upon  his  gaiety.  In  explanation  he 
related  what  had  happened.  An  expression  from  his  lis- 
tener of  admiration  at  the  patience  and  sweetness  of  his 
attitude  brought  from  him  this  answer:  without  speaking 
he  took  from  his  inside  breast  pocket  a  little  worn  brown 
card  and  handed  it  to  her. 
She  read: 

"  The  man  who  is  worthy  of  being  a  leader  of  men  will  never 
complain  of  the  stupidity  of  his  helpers,  of  the  ingratitude  of  man- 
kind, nor  of  the  inappreciation  of  the  public. 

"  These  things  are  all  a  part  of  the  great  game  of  life,  and  to 
meet  them  and  not  go  down  under  them  in  discouragement  and 
defeat  is  the  final  proof  of  power." 

"  I  should  like  to  keep  this  card  long  enough  to  copy 
the  quotation,"  the  friend  said,  after  a  moment. 

"  You  may  have  it,"  replied  Mr.  Johnson,  "  I  don't 
need  it  any  more." 

Much  of  Mr.  Johnson's  success  in  public  affairs  as  in 
his  mastery  of  himself  must  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that 
he  did  not  go  into  the  fight  against  Privilege  with  the  con- 
fusion of  ideas  and  multiplicity  of  aims  which  have  de- 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

stroyed  the  usefulness  of  so  many  good,  well-intentioned 
men  in  similar  service.  If  it  be  that  there  are  men  in 
whom  the  sense  of  justice  is  more  highly  developed  than 
it  was  in  Mr.  Johnson,  in  the  history  of  our  country,  at 
least,  there  has  been  none  who  has  given  fuller  expression 
in  action  to  that  sense  of  justice.  He  was  a  rich  man, 
made  rich  by  special  privilege.  He  did  not  blink  the 
fact.  When  Mr.  George's  writings  opened  his  eyes  to 
the  truth  about  the  established  order,  he  went  out  to  de- 
stroy the  conditions  which  make  his  own  class  possible. 

Inequality  of  opportunity  with  its  concomitant  result, 
involuntary  poverty,,  was  the  social  wrong.  To  restore 
equality  of  opportunity  by  securing  to  each  worker  the 
product  of  his  own  labor,  thereby  depriving  a  privileged 
few  from  monopolizing  rewards  which  belong  to  the 
many,  was  the  social  remedy.  His  programme  was 
definite  and  complete.  His  philosophy  must  have  been 
tremendously  satisfying,  for  by  means  of  it  he  worked  out 
a  simple,  effective  solution  to  every  political  problem  that 
might  arise,  and  the  answers  to  his  personal  problems  as 
well. 

That  there  was  a  marked  development  in  the  noblest 
qualities  in  Mr.  Johnson's  character  during  the  last  five 
or  six  years  of  his  life  none  of  his  friends  will  gainsay;  yet 
from  the  very  beginning  of  his  interest  in  social  questions 
there  was  something  different,  something  extraordinary 
about  him.  One  of  the  ablest  of  American  editors,  a  man 
who  had  been  closely  associated  with  Mr.  Johnson  in  the 
earlier  days  and  one  who  knew  him  intimately  for  twenty- 
five  years,  said  of  him  a  few  days  after  his  death,  "  I  don't 
know  how  it  was,  but  somehow  Johnson  never  had  to  rea- 
son things  out.  No  matter  what  the  question  that  came 


INTRODUCTION  xxvii 

up,  no  matter  how  laboriously  I  might  have  to  study  it  in 
order  to  work  my  way  out,  he  knew  as  if  by  instinct  the 
proper  and  just  solution  of  it." 

Another  of  the  men  who  was  closest  to  Mr.  Johnson 
from  1901  to  1911  says, 

"  I  can  only  understand  Tom  L.  Johnson  by  saying  that  his 
qualities  were  of  a  different  kind  than  those  of  other  men;  his 
courage,  his  intellect,  his  insight,  his  sympathy,  his  love  were  on 
a  something  more  than  human  plane.  He  saw  his  mental  pictures, 
reached  his  decisions,  carried  his  Herculean  load  for  more  than 
forty  years  because  he  was  endowed  with  a  gift  of  a  different 
caliber,  of  another  kind  than  those  of  any  of  his  contemporaries. 
There  was  nothing  ordinary  about  him  except  his  kinship  with 
ordinary  people.  He  might  easily  have  been  a  Morgan  of  finance 
had  he  chosen  to  pursue  this  field  of  exploit;  he  might  easily  have 
been  one  of  our  greatest  inventors,  one  of  our  greatest  electrical 
experts.  He  was  a  wonderful  mathematician,  a  great  manager  of 
men  and  things,  a  political  philosopher  of  the  rarest  kind  with 
something  of  the  intuitive  point  of  view  of  Jefferson.  He  knew 
the  street  railway  business  from  the  standpoint  of  the  motorman, 
the  conductor,  the  manager,  the  electrician,  the  financier.  He 
had  been  all  of  these  things.  He  had  mastered  the  iron  and  steel 
business  in  the  same  exhaustive  way.  For  years  he  arose  at  five 
o'clock  and  began  the  day  with  a  study  of  French  or  some  other 
subject  with  an  instructor,  and  closed  it  with  the  study  of  some 
work  on  political  science  in  which  he  was  interested.  He  was  an 
orator  of  the  most  effective  kind  and  in  quick  exchange  of  repartee 
or  in  answering  questions,  a  master.  As  a  parliamentary  leader 
of  the  English  sort  he  would  probably  have  been  the  greatest  of 
his  generation,  for  he  not  only  knew  more  about  more  things  than 
any  man  I  have  ever  met,  but  he  also  had  a  philosophy  of  life 
which  clarified  every  question  into  its  logical  crystals.  That  was 
one  of  the  rarest  qualities  of  the  man.  He  did  not  reason  things 
out ;  they  simply  straightened  out  when  they  came  in  contact  with 


xxviii  INTRODUCTION 

his  mind.  Did  a  proposition  make  for  liberty?  it  was  approved. 
Did  it  make  for  special  privilege  in  any  of  its  forms?  it  was  wrong. 
Did  legislation  open  up  opportunity,  promote  personal  or  political 
freedom,  make  it  easier  for  all  men  to  achieve  their  best  ?  it  required 
no  other  argument.  I  have  frequently  heard  him  say  that  if  he 
had  the  choice  of  leaving  his  children  with  millions  or  with  equal 
opportunity  he  would  not  hesitate  which  to  choose." 

No  picture  of  this  man  would  be  complete  without  a 
view  of  him  at  play,  for  Mr.  Johnson  played  on  as  gigan- 
tic a  scale  as  he  worked.  Had  he  chosen  to  make  his  play 
his  serious  work  he  would  probably  have  been  one  of  the 
greatest  inventors  of  his  time.  He  had  intended  to  tell 
as  part  of  this  story,  in  narrative  form  and  so  simply  that 
every  layman  might  understand  it,  something  of  his  in- 
vention which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  was  known  to 
his  friends  as  "  greased  lightning."  Even  after  he  was 
stricken  by  his  final  illness  and  confined  to  his  bed  he  talked 
about  this  and  still  hoped  to  be  able  to  dictate  it.  This 
was  not  to  be,  but  we  are  able  to  give  the  story  to  the 
readers  of  Mr.  Johnson's  book,  for  Frederic  C.  Howe,  re- 
membering it  as  Mr.  Johnson  told  it  to  him,  has  written 
it  for  us.  Mr.  Howe's  assistance  not  only  in  the  matter 
of  the  following  story  of  the  invention  but  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  entire  introduction  has  been  invaluable. 

"  Mr.  Johnson's  most  Titanic  recreative  exploit  was  what  his 
friends  called  '  Greased  Lightning '  or  '  Slip-Slide.'  One  day  in 
the  midst  of  a  conference  at  the  City  Hall  a  man  waited  to  see 
the  mayor.  When  his  turn  came  he  said,  '  Mr.  Johnson,  I  have 
an  invention  out  in  Chicago  —  a  street  railway  operated  by  mag- 
nets laid  between  the  rails.  It  does  away  with  the  trolley.'  Mr. 
Johnson  replied :  '  That  interests  me.  For  years  I  have  been 
thinking  of  a  railway  operated  by  magnets  between  the  rails;  but 


INTRODUCTION  xxix 

that  does  not  interest  me  so  much.  What  I  want  to  do  is  to  get 
rid  of  the  wheels.  They  are  the  obstacle  to  speed.  You  cannot 
go  much  faster  than  the  present  rate  of  speed  because  when  you 
do  the  wheels  fly  asunder  from  the  rapidity  of  the  revolutions. 
Now  there  must  be  a  way  of  running  a  train  without  wheels  and 
that  is  what  I  am  most  interested  in.  We  ought  to  be  able  to 
travel  three  or  four  hundred  miles  an  hour  but  we  can't  do  it 
so  long  as  we  are  dependent  on  wheels.' 

"  He  finally  went  to  Chicago  and  saw  the  invention.  Shortly 
after  his  return  trucks  loaded  with  great  square  timbers  and  pieces 
of  steel  drew  up  in  front  of  his  mansion  on  Euclid  avenue.  The 
area  ways  to  the  basement  floor  were  opened  up  and  the  unwieldy 
freight  was  pushed  into  the  basement.  Electrical  machinery  fol- 
lowed. Then  Mr.  Johnson  picked  out  the  best  electrician  he  could 
find  in  the  city  and  explained  his  idea.  It  seemed  too  absurd  for 
trial  but  they  went  to  work.  Day  after  day  and  month  after 
month  in  the  early  morning  and  late  at  night  he  worked  in  the 
cellar  with  these  strange  appliances  for  solving  the  problem  of 
rapid  locomotion.  He  jokingly  told  his  friends  what  he  was  plan- 
ning to  do.  They  laughed  at  his  monster  plaything  which  covered 
the  floor  of  the  cellar  and  extended  as  a  track  for  ninety  feet  from 
one  end  to  the  other.  It  was  given  the  derisive  name  of  '  Greased' 
Lightning.'  There  were  no  wheels  above  the  tracks,  only  a  rough 
car  on  steel  shoes  like  flat  bottomed  skates.  Below  and  between 
the  tracks  were  steel  magnets.  That  was  all,  with  the  exception 
of  powerful  electrical  devices  connected  with  similar  machinery  in 
the  back  yard.  The  underlying  idea  in  non-technical  terms  was 
to  propel  the  car  by  a  series  of  magnets  laid  between  the  tracks, 
which  would  act  in  succession,  the  current  being  cut  off  as  the  car 
passed  over  the  one  below  it.  This  was  the  propelling  power. 
But  this  power  was  downward.  There  was  nothing  to  relieve 
the  friction  of  the  shoes  on  the  tracks,  nothing  to  lift  the  car  so 
that  the  forward  movement  would  be  possible.  Finally  the  day 
was  set  for  the  trial.  Powerful  currents  were  turned  on  and  by 
the  carefully  studied  electrical  formulas  the  car  should  have  moved 


xxx  INTRODUCTION 

forward.  Instead  of  that  the  magnetic  power  under  the  car  was 
so  strong  that  it  crushed  the  structure  to  the  earth.  '  Greased 
Lightning  '  failed  to  move. 

"  For  weeks  Mr.  Johnson  studied  the  problem.  He  went  over 
his  calculations.  They  were  theoretically  correct.  Of  that  he 
was  sure.  He  had  his  processes  proved  up  by  his  mechanician. 
Then  he  threw  away  the  road  bed,  the  car  and  the  appliances 
which  had  cost  thousands  of  dollars  and  reversed  the  arrangement. 

"  A  structure  was  built  across  the  top  of  the  cellar  and  consisted 
of  a  series  of  magnets  that  were  energized  at  the  proper  time  to 
lift  the  car  and  carry  it  forward.  At  the  top  of  the  car  were 
shoes  which  were  made  to  fit  loosely  between  upper  and  lower 
tracks  located  on  the  elevated  structure.  To  the  shoes  were  at- 
tached light  contact  fingers  made  of  a  spring  bronze  which  touched 
the  tracks  slightly  in  advance  of  the  shoes.  The  car  when  not  in 
motion  would  hang  by  the  shoes  upon  the  lower  track.  The  con- 
tact fingers  would  be  in  tight  contact  with  the  same.  The  instant 
the  controller  was  turned  on  the  current  would  pass  through  the 
contact  fingers  energizing  lifting  magnets  sufficiently  to  lift  the  car 
and  the  shoes  from  the  bottom  track.  If,  however,  it  were  lifted 
sufficiently  for  the  contact  fingers  to  touch  the  top  track  the  cur- 
rent in  the  lifting  magnet  would  be  reduced  so  as  to  float  the 
car  practically  half  way  between  the  two  tracks.  Thus  the  car 
theoretically  would  float  in  the  air  and  when  the  magnets  designed 
for  forward  propulsion  were  energized  it  would  move  forward  in 
proportion  to  the  speed  at  which  these  magnets  were  energized. 

"  This  is  a  description  of  what  he  planned  to  do  as  explained 
to  my  non-technical  mind.  It  was  finally  completed,  after  many 
delays,  and  the  current  turned  on.  '  Greased  Lightning '  actually 
moved.  The  car  was  propelled  forward  and  backward  as  rapidly 
as  it  was  safe  to  permit  in  the  short  ninety  feet  of  track  in  the 
cellar.  It  was  interesting  to  watch  the  loading  of  the  car,  for 
as  each  additional  passenger  stepped  on  there  would  be  a  slight 
downward  movement  until  the  contact  finger  touched  the  lower 
rail  when  it  would  immediately  resume  its  former  position. 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

"  The  car  in  motion  was  necessarily  absolutely  noiseless  and 
without  the  least  vibration.  With  eyes  closed,  at  the  slight  rate 
of  speed  at  which  it  was  necessary  to  move  in  the  cellar,  the  occu- 
pant could  not  tell  whether  the  car  was  in  motion  or  not.  Had 
the  speed  been  greater  the  only  difference  would  have  been  the 
feeling  of  the  air  current. 

"Mr.  Johnson  was  satisfied  that  he  had  demonstrated  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  long  study  of  the  subject.  If  the  device  was  the- 
oretically correct  it  must  be  practically  correct,  he  argued.  But 
he  had  no  time  and  not  sufficient  money  to  build  a  large  model. 
That  would  require  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars.  It  would 
also  revolutionize  locomotion  and  scrap  the  railroads  of  the  coun- 
try. For,  as  he  said,  with  '  Slip-Slide '  one  could  go  from  Chicago 
to  New  York  in  four  or  five  hours;  from  New  York  to  Phila- 
delphia in  half  an  hour.  There  was  an  end  of  space;  an  end  of 
the  tenement  and  the  slum.  Here  was  a  means  of  making  the 
ends  of  America  touch  one  another. 

"  He  went  to  Schenectady  and  interested  the  General  Electric 
Company.  They  were  incredulous.  But  they  sent  three  expert 
electricians  to  Cleveland.  They  spent  weeks  there  studying  the 
device.  They  checked  up  every  process  in  the  reasoning  and 
finally  reported  that  the  project  was  scientifically  sound  and  cor- 
rect. The  General  Electric  was  still  unconvinced  so  they  sent 
their  chief  electrician  to  Cleveland.  After  investigation  he,  too, 
was  convinced  that  space  was  annihilated.  He  so  reported  to  the 
company.  Then  there  were  conferences  between  Mr.  Johnson  and 
the  company.  Contracts  were  drawn  for  the  building  of  a  model 
and  the  trial  of  the  project. 

"  It  was  practically  agreed  that  the  General  Electric  was  to 
furnish  the  money  for  an  experiment  on  a  large  scale;  a  two-mile 
track  was  to  be  built  at  Schenectady.  The  General  Electric  was 
to  have  certain  rights  of  manufacture  and  Mr.  Johnson  certain 
selling  rights,  but  before  the  contract  was  signed  it  was  found  that 
the  proposed  experiment  would  cost  at  least  half  a  million  dollars. 
The  company  decided  that  it  would  not  be  justified  in  expending 


xxxii  INTRODUCTION 

so  large  an  amount  on  an  experiment,  and  it  was  then  proposed 
that  a  number  of  individuals  join  in  financing  the  experiment  on 
some  equitable  basis  of  division  of  final  profits.  This  arrangement 
was  never  completed,  for  at  about  that  time  the  panic  of  1907 
interfered  and  Mr.  Johnson  was  immersed  in  his  political  fight  to 
the  exclusion  of  all  interests  of  a  personal  nature.  Negotiations 
were  stopped,  no  further  progress  was  made  on  the  invention  which 
Mr.  Johnson  fully  believed  would  have  practically  annihilated 
space  and  joined  the  two  sides  of  the  continent  more  closely  to- 
gether than  Boston  and  New  York  now  are." 

With  all  his  resources,  all  his  interests,  all  the  dominat- 
ing traits  of  character  which  were  his,  Mr.  Johnson  was 
as  dependent  on  his  friends  for  happiness  as  a  little  child 
is  dependent  on  its  mother  for  care.  His  play  like  his 
work  had  to  be  shared.  Friends  were  the  supreme  neces- 
sity of  his  life.  When  reduced  fortunes  compelled  him  to 
give  up  the  spacious  mansion  on  Euclid  avenue  where  he 
had  lived  for  years  in  luxury,  that  had  been  generously 
shared  with  friends  and  kinsfolk,  it  is  inconceivable  that 
the  sacrifice  cost  him  no  pang.  Yet  he  made  it  smiling, 
and  more  than  once  was  heard  to  say,  "  It  is  worth  losing 
money  to  find  friends.  I  know  now  who  my  real  friends 
are."  And  they  had  to  be  real  friends;  for  he  who  gave 
friendship  in  such  royal  measure  demanded  genuine  af- 
fection and  plenty  of  it  in  return.  "  I  cannot  stand  the 
counterfeit,"  he  often  said. 

What  history  will  do  with  the  name  of  Tom  L.  John- 
son we  do  not  know.  But  this  we  know,  that  it  was  this 
human  quality  in  him,  this  love  of  his  kind,  that  sent  him 
into  the  people's  fight  and  kept  him  in  it  to  the  end.  It 
was  this  which  made  him  turn  aside  from  money-getting, 
this  which  made  him  forego  the  keen  pleasures  of  me- 


INTRODUCTION  xxxiii 

chanical  pursuits,  this  which  made  the  loss  of  wealth  and 
of  what  men  call  success,  the  loss  of  health,  yes,  of  life 
on  earth  itself,  seem  of  small  account  to  him.  And  be- 
cause he  loved  much,  he  lived  much.  No  one  who  reads 
his  story  can  fail  to  realize  that  he  lived  more  in  almost 
any  ten  years  of  his  adult  life  than  it  is  given  to  most  men 
to  live  in  a  long,  long  lifetime;  nor  can  they  fail  to  see 
that  his  living  was  a  complete  and  constant  giving — a  giv- 
ing of  that  greatest  gift  within  man's  power  to  give  — 

HIMSELF. 

ELIZABETH  J,  HAUSER. 


"  The  man  who  is  worthy  of  being  a  leader  of  men 
will  never  complain  of  the  stupidity  of  his  helpers,  of 
the  ingratitude  of  mankind,  nor  of  the  inappreciation  of 
the  public. 

"  These  things  are  all  a  part  of  the  great  game  of  life, 
and  to  meet  them  and  not  go  down  under  them  in  dis- 
couragement and  defeat  is  the  final  proof  of  power." 


FOREWORD 

THE  greatest  movement  in  the  world  to-day  may  be 
characterized  as  the  struggle  of  the  people  against  Priv- 
ilege. 

On  the  one  side  the  People  —  slow  to  wake  up,  slow 
to  recognize  their  own  interests,  slow  to  realize  their 
power,  slow  to  invoke  it.  On  the  other,  Privilege  —  al- 
ways awake  and  quick  to  act,  owning  many  of  the  news- 
papers, controlling  the  election  and  appointment  of  judges, 
dictating  to  city  councils,  influencing  legislatures  and  writ- 
ing our  national  laws. 

What  is  Privilege? 

Privilege  is  the  advantage  conferred  on  one  by  law 
of  denying  the  competition  of  others.  It  matters  not 
whether  the  advantage  be  bestowed  upon  a  single  individ- 
ual, upon  a  partnership,  or  upon  an  aggregation  of  part- 
nerships, a  trust  —  the  essence  of  the  evil  is  the  same. 
And  just  to  the  extent  that  the  law  imposes  restrictions 
upon  some  men  and  not  on  others,  just  to  the  extent  that  it 
grants  special  favors  to  some  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  do 
the  people  suffer  from  this  evil. 

These  law-made  restrictions  and  benefits  are  many,  but 
substantially  all  may  be  grouped,  in  the  order  of  their 
importance,  in  the  following  five  classes:  land  monopolies, 
taxation  monopolies,  transportation  monopolies,  municipal 
monopolies  and  patent  monopolies. 

The  greatest  of  all  governmental  favors  or  special  priv- 

XXXV 


xxxvi  FOREWORD 

ileges  is  land  monopoly,  made  possible  by  the  exemption 
from  taxation  of  land  values. 

The  special  privileges  growing  out  of  conditions  cre- 
ated by  our  local,  State  and  national  tax  systems  are  so  far- 
reaching  and  disastrous  in  their  effects  that  one  might  de- 
vote a  volume  to  the  discussion  of  this  division  of  Priv- 
ilege, and  then  not  begin  to  compass  the  question. 

Under  transportation  monopolies  come  the  govern- 
mental favors  to  railroads  and  to  those  enterprises  de- 
pendent upon  the  railroads,  such  as  special  freight  lines, 
sleeping-car  companies,  express  and  telegraph  companies. 

Municipal  monopolies  consist  of  rights  and  special  priv- 
ileges in  the  public  streets  and  highways  which  in  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  cannot  be  possessed  by  all  the  people  and 
can  be  enjoyed  only  by  a  few.  Under  this  head  come  the 
franchises  which  our  cities  grant  to  street  railways,  to 
water,  gas,  electric  light  and  telephone  companies,  and  in 
these  lie  the  chief  sources  of  corruption  in  municipal  life. 

Patent  monopolies  are  the  last  distinct  survival  of  a 
policy  which  once  had  a  very  much  wider  application  and 
which  in  every  other  case  has  been  abandoned  because  it 
was  recognized  to  be  unsound.  At  one  time  it  was  com- 
mon enough  to  reward  public  service  of  almost  any  kind 
by  the  grant  of  a  trade  monopoly.  Soldiers  in  war  were 
tempted  by  the  prospect  of  such  a  grant  and  often  got  it 
as  the  result  of  a  victory.  Statesmen  were  tempted  and 
were  often  rewarded  in  the  same  way  for  services  to  the 
State,  or  services  to  their  party.  Now  this  is  universally 
recognized  to  be  an  error. 

Patent  monopolies  cut  off  from  us  the  opportunity  to 
take  immediate  advantage  of  the  world's  inventions. 
They  exert  upon  many  men  an  influence  as  baneful  as  the 


FOREWORD  xxxvii 

most  corrupt  lottery  by  tempting  them  from  regular  work 
and  useful  occupations.  They  interfere  with  the  natural 
development  of  invention. 

Useful  inventions  come  naturally  and  almost  inevitably 
as  the  next  necessary  step  in  industrial  evolution.  Most 
of  them  are  never  patented.  The  patents  that  are  granted 
interfere  with  this  natural  development.  If  inventors 
must  be  rewarded  it  would  be  better  to  pay  them  a  bounty 
than  to  continue  a  system  productive  of  so  much  evil. 

And  so  by  securing  in  different  ways  "  special  privileges 
to  some  "  and  denying  "  equal  rights  to  all,"  our  govern- 
ments, local,  State  and  national,  have  precipitated  the 
struggle  of  the  people  against  Privilege. 

It  matters  not  what  the  question  —  whether  a  water  or 
gas  franchise,  a  street  railway  monopoly,  a  coal  combina- 
tion, an  ordinary  railroad  charter,  or  the  grabbing  of  the 
public  domain  —  the  issue  between  them  is  always  the 
same. 

Owners  and  managers  of  public-service  corporations 
may  change;  so  may  their  methods.  They  may  respect 
public  opinion  or  scorn  it ;  they  may  show  great  considera- 
tion for  their  employes  or  treat  them  as  machines;  their 
policies  may  be  liberal  or  the  reverse ;  they  may  strive  for 
all  the  traffic  will  bear,  looking  to  dividends  only,  or  they 
may  share  their  profits  with  the  public. 

What  of  it? 

So,  too,  political  parties  may  change. 

And  what  of  that? 

A  Republican  boss  or  a  Democratic  boss  is  equally  use- 
ful to  Privilege.  It  may  seek  legislative  power  through 
dealing  directly  with  corrupt  bosses,  or  it  may  find  the 
control  of  party  machinery  by  means  of  liberal  campaign 


xxxviii  FOREWORD 

contributions  the  more  effective;  again  it  may  divert  the 
attention  of  the  people  from  fundamental  issues  by  get- 
ting them  to  squabbling  over  nonessentials. 

This  is  often  demonstrated  when  the  contest  is  made 
to  appear  to  be  between  two  men,  though  in  reality  both 
are  committed  in  advance  to  obey  the  wishes  of  Privilege. 
Superficial  moral  issues  are  especially  serviceable  in  this 
particular  line  of  attack. 

But  it  is  on  the  judiciary  that  Privilege  exercises  its  most 
insidious  and  dangerous  power.  Lawyers  whose  employ- 
ment has  been  entirely  in  its  interests  are  selected  for  the 
bench.  Their  training,  their  environment,  their  self-in- 
terest, all  combine  to  make  them  the  most  powerful  allies 
of  monopoly.  Yet  this  may  be,  and  often  is,  without  any 
consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  judges  themselves  that 
their  selection  has  been  influenced  by  an  interest  opposed 
to  the  public  good. 

Thus  unwittingly  men,  otherwise  incorruptible,  become 
the  most  pliable  agents  of  Privilege  and  the  most  danger- 
ous of  public  servants.  No  mere  change  of  political 
names  or  of  men  can  correct  these  evils.  A  political 
change  will  not  affect  judges  with  their  judge-made  laws, 
and  so  long  as  Privilege  controls  both  parties,  a  political 
change  will  not  affect  the  legislative  bodies  which  create 
judges.  An  effective  recall  of  judges  would  furnish  the 
machinery  to  correct  many  abuses,  and  this  step  can  be 
taken  without  waiting  for  the  economic  changes  which  must 
afford  the  final  and  fundamental  relief. 

For  it  is  to  economic  change,  and  not  to  political  change, 
that  the  people  must  look  for  the  solution  of  this  problem. 
Not  lawbreakers,  but  lawmakers  are  responsible  for  bad 
economic  conditions;  and  these  only  indirectly,  for  it  is 


FOREWORD  xxxix 

business  interests  controlling  lawmakers  that  furnish  the 
great  motive  force  in  the  protection  of  Privilege. 

The  economic  change  that  will  correct  these  political 
abuses  is  one  that  must  remove  the  prizes  which  Privilege 
now  secures  from  the  People.  It  must  reserve  to  the  pub- 
lic the  ownership  and  management  of  public-service  utili- 
ties so  that  they  shall  be  regarded  no  longer  as  private 
loot,  but  as  public  rights  to  be  safeguarded  and  pro- 
tected. 

That  good,  law-abiding  corporations  and  good,  well- 
meaning  men  cannot  correct  these  wrongs  without  chang- 
ing the  economic  conditions  which  produce  them,  has  been 
proved  times  without  number,  and  only  serves  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  the  real  fight  of  the  people  is  not  to 
abolish  lawbreaking,  but  to  put  an  end  to  that  lawmaking 
which  is  against  the  public  good. 

It  is  true  that  the  contest  looks  like  an  unequal  one; 
that  the  advantage  seems  to  be  entirely  on  the  side  of 
Privilege;  that  its  position  appears  invulnerable. 

Is  there  then  no  hope  ?     Let  us  see. 

The  people's  advance  guard  has  been  routed  often,  and 
will  be  time  and  time  again.  New  recruits  must  come  to 
the  front.  As  the  firing  lines  are  decimated  the  discon- 
tented masses  must  rush  forward  to  fill  the  gaps  in  the 
ranks.  Finally,  when  we  are  fighting  all  along  the  line, 
public  opinion  will  be  strong  enough  to  drive  Privilege  out 
of  its  last  trench. 

Agitation  for  the  right,  once  set  in  motion,  cannot  be 
stopped.  Truth  can  never  lose  its  power.  It  presses  for- 
ward gaining  victories,  suffering  defeats,  but  losing  noth- 
ing of  momentum,  augmenting  its  strength  though  seeming 
to  expend  it. 


xl  FOREWORD 

Newspapers  controlled  by  the  Interests  cannot  stop  this 
forward  movement,  legislatures  must  yield  to  it,  the  courts 
finally  see  and  respect  it  and  political  parties  must  go  with 
it  or  be  wrecked. 

What  more  striking  example  could  be  cited  than  the 
disintegration  of  the  Republican  party  as  shown  at  the 
1910  election,  following  so  closely  upon  the  almost  un- 
paralleled vote  for  its  candidate  for  President? 

Big  Business,  corrupt  bosses,  subservient  courts,  pliant 
legislatures  and  an  Interest-controlled  press  may  block, 
delay,  apparently  check  its  progress,  but  these  are  only 
surface  indications.  The  deeper  currents  are  all  headed 
in  the  same  direction,  and  once  fairly  started  nothing  can 
turn  them  back. 

It  is  because  I  believe  that  the  story  of  my  part  in  this 
universal  movement  helps  to  illustrate  the  truth  of  this 
proposition  that  I  have  decided  to  tell  it. 

I  am  going  to  show  how  Privilege  fights  in  the  city, 
the  State  and  the  nation,  but  I  shall  deal  more  largely  with 
the  city  since  it  is  here  that  the  abolition  of  privilege  must 
begin. 

In  the  main,  the  things  I  shall  tell  about  Cleveland  are 
the  things  that  might  be  told  about  any  city  or  state.  The 
source  of  the  evil;  the  source  of  the  good;  the  source  of 
the  shame  and  corruption;  the  contest  between  opposing 
economic  interests;  the  alliance  among  those  identified 
with  the  franchise  corporations  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
unorganized  people  on  the  other,  is  the  same  everywhere. 

Cleveland's  experiences  are  the  experiences  that  other 
cities  will  have  in  their  efforts  to  be  free.  Privilege  may 
not  be  quite  as  irresistible  for  them  as  it  was  for  us,  be- 
cause the  people  have  been  gathering  strength,  party  lines 


FOREWORD  xli 

are  being  broken  and  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  Priv- 
ilege is  spreading.  Privilege  no  longer  asserts  itself  with 
the  arrogance  of  unlimited  and  unchallenged  power  as  it 
did  a  few  years  ago.  The  pressure  of  right  is  reaching 
into  the  higher  places.  It  is  disintegrating  the  classes 
which  have  ruled. 

The  influences  which  operated  to  arouse  my  inter- 
est in  the  struggle  of  the  people  against  Privilege  are  sig- 
nificant only  as  they  show  one  of  the  many  ways  in  which 
our  minds  are  made  to  meet  and  grasp  these  great  prob- 
lems, for,  while  really  sincere  investigators  arrive  at  last  at 
the  same  conclusion,  nearly  all  of  us  travel  different  roads 
to  get  there. 


MY   STORY 


A  MONOPOLIST  IN  THE  MAKING 

I  WAS  born  at  Blue  Spring  near  Georgetown,  Kentucky, 
July  1 8,  1854.  My  father,  Albert  W.  Johnson,  and  my 
mother,  Helen  Loftin,  met  while  attending  different 
schools  at  the  latter  place  and  here  they  had  been  married 
August  4,  1853. 

My  mother  was  born  in  Jackson,  Tenn.,  the  same  little 
town  from  which  my  fellow  disturber  of  the  public  service 
peace,  Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey  of  Denver,  came. 

My  earliest  recollections  are  of  events  connected  with 
the  war,  though  an  incident  which  happened  the  year  be- 
fore seems  very  clear  in  my  mind.  Just  how  much  of  it 
I  actually  remember,  however,  and  how  much  of  it  is  due 
to  hearing  it  often  repeated  I  cannot  say.  But  what  hap- 
pened was  this:  Joe  Pilcher  and  I  were  playing  on  the 
floor  with  a  Noah's  Ark  and  a  most  wonderful  array  of 
little  painted  animals.  These  toys  were  made  by  the 
prisoners  in  the  penitentiary  at  Nashville,  where  my 
mother  had  purchased  them  for  me  on  our  way  South  to 
our  summer  home,  a  plantation  in  Arkansas.  After  in- 
finite pains  and  hours  of  labor  my  playmate  and  I  had  ar- 
ranged the  little  figures  in  pairs,  according  to  size,  begin- 

I 


2  MY  STORY 

ning  with  the  elephants  and  ending  with  the  beetles,  when 
one  of  the  young  ladies  of  our  household,  dressed  for  a 
party,  crossed  the  room  and  with  her  train  switched  the 
lines  to  hopeless  entanglement  in  the  meshes  of  the  long 
lace  curtains,  two  of  the  animals  only  remaining  stand- 
ing. Joe,  who  was  somewhat  my  senior,  burst  into  tears, 
while  I  smiled  brightly  and  said: 

"  Don't  cry,  Joe;  there  are  two  left  anyhow." 

My  mother  never  tired  of  telling  this  story  and  its  fre- 
quent repetition  certainly  had  a  marked  influence  upon  my 
life,  for  it  established  for  me,  in  the  family,  a  reputation 
as  an  optimist  which  I  felt  in  honor  bound  to  live  up  to 
somehow.  I  early  acquired  a  kind  of  habit  of  making  the 
best  of  whatever  happened. 

In  later  life  larger  things  presented  themselves  to  me 
in  exactly  the  same  way.  Nothing  was  ever  entirely  lost. 
There  was  no  disaster  so  great  that  there  weren't  always 
"  two  left  anyhow."  My  reputation  for  being  always 
cheerful  in  defeat  —  a  reputation  earned  at  such  cost  that 
I  may  mention  it  without  apology  —  is  largely  due  to  this 
incident,  trivial  though  it  may  seem. 

I  remember  the  beginning  of  the  war  very  well  and  am 
sure  that  from  this  time  my  recollections  are  actual  mem- 
ories, not  family  traditions. 

As  his  first  service  to  the  Confederacy  my  father,  a 
slave  owner  and  cotton  planter,  organized  a  military  com- 
pany at  Helena,  Ark.,  of  which  he  was  Captain.  Be- 
coming Colonel  in  command  of  a  brigade  under  General  T. 
C.  Hindman  a  little  later,  one  of  his  first  duties  was  to 
execute  the  order  to  destroy  all  cotton  likely  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Though  he  was  opposed  to  this 
policy  he  enforced  the  order  with  rigid  impartiality,  com- 


A  MONOPOLIST  IN  THE  MAKING         3 

pelling  my  mother,  who  had  managed  to  hide  some  cotton 
in  the  cane-brake,  to  bring  it  out  and  have  it  burned  as 
soon  as  he  discovered  her  secret.  The  burning  of  this 
cotton  made  a  great  impression  on  my  mind,  especially  the 
sorrow  of  the  negroes  who  stood  around  the  smouldering 
bales  and  cried  like  children  at  sight  of  the  waste  of  what 
had  cost  them  such  hard  work  to  raise. 

Shortly  after  this  we  moved  to  Little  Rock  and  it  was 
while  we  were  living  there  that  my  mother  shot  a  burglar 
who  was  trying  to  get  into  the  house  through  a  bedroom 
window.  I  recall  this  incident  vividly.  I  can  see  the 
bed  which  my  mother  and  the  baby,  Albert,  occupied  — 
with  its  white  mosquito  bar  cover  —  in  one  corner  of  the 
room;  against  the  opposite  wall  the  bed  in  which  my 
brother  Will  and  I  slept;  the  form  of  a  man  trying  to 
climb  through  the  window,  and  my  mother's  upraised  arm 
as  she  discharged  a  pistol  at  him.  She  didn't  hurt  him 
much,  but  when  he  was  captured  in  a  similar  attempt  a 
few  weeks  later,  the  burglar  admitted  that  he  had  gotten 
the  wound  in  his  leg  from  Mrs.  Johnson. 

My  mother  was  not  only  courageous  and  self-reliant, 
but  remarkably  independent  in  thought  and  in  action. 
She  cared  so  little  for  what  people  might  think  or  say  that 
having  made  a  decision  she  acted  upon  it  without  further 
ado.  If  my  own  disregard  of  the  things  "  they  say  "  is 
an  inheritance  from  my  mother  I  am  more  grateful  for 
it  than  for  any  other  characteristic  she  may  have  given 
me.  With  all  her  independence,  however,  she  was  one 
of  the  most  tactful  persons  I  have  ever  known.  She  had 
a  genius  for  getting  on  well  with  people  even  under  the 
most  trying  circumstances. 

The  stirring  events  of  her  young  wifehood  and  mother- 


4  MY  STORY 

hood  afforded  plenty  of  outlet  for  her  energy,  and  in 
later  and  calmer  times  she  found  new  means  of  expression. 
She  studied  French  and  music  after  she  was  forty,  and  she 
remodeled  and  built  so  many  houses  just  for  the  enjoy- 
ment she  got  out  of  the  planning  that  house  building  be- 
came almost  a  steady  occupation  with  her. 

General  Hindman  and  my  father  quarreled  over  a  court 
martial.  Some  young  soldiers  had  stolen  away  one  night 
and  visited  their  homes  in  the  vicinity  of  the  camp.  They 
were  brought  back  and  charged  with  desertion.  Father 
insisted  that  they  were  not  deserters,  that  they  were  just 
homesick  boys  who  would  have  returned  of  their  own  free 
will,  and  he  refused  to  conduct  the  trial  on  that  account. 
Because  of  this  quarrel  he  left  Hindman  to  join  General 
John  C.  Breckinridge's  command  near  Atlanta. 

In  two  light  wagons  and  a  barouche  the  family  and  sev- 
eral servants,  old  Uncle  Adam  standing  out  most  clearly 
in  my  memory,  started  on  that  journey.  We  crossed  the 
Mississippi  river  at  Napoleon  and  just  as  we  landed  on 
the  Mississippi  side  a  Yankee  gunboat  came  into  sight. 
If  we  had  been  a  few  minutes  later,  or  the  gunboat  a  few 
minutes  earlier,  my  father  undoubtedly  would  have  been 
taken  prisoner.  We  went  to  Yazoo  City,  thence  in  our 
vehicles  across  the  State  of  Alabama,  arriving  at  Atlanta 
by  Christmas  —  the  first  Christmas  of  the  war. 

I  do  not  remember  just  how  long  we  stayed  in  Georgia, 
but  certainly  more  than  a  year,  and  most  of  that  time  at 
Milledgeville.  One  morning,  much  to  my  delight,  I  was 
permitted  to  hold  in  my  arms  the  one-day-old  son  of  the 
family  with  whom  we  were  boarding.  That  baby  is  now 
William  Gibbs  McAdoo,  famous  for  his  successful  promo- 
tion of  New  York  City's  underground  railways. 


A  MONOPOLIST  IN  THE  MAKING          5 

When  we  left  Georgia,  we  went  north,  through  the 
Carolinas  —  most  of  the  way  by  our  own  conveyances  — 
to  Corner  Springs,  Virginia,  and  later  to  Withville. 
While  living  at  the  former  place  I  often  saw  detachments 
of  Southern  troops  march  by  our  house  in  the  morning, 
and  companies  of  Union  soldiers  pass  in  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day.  At  Withville  I  had  a  terrible  attack  of 
typhoid  fever,  the  first  illness  of  my  life.  From  With- 
ville we  went  to  Natural  Bridge,  where  we  spent  a  year 
or  so,  leaving  here  for  Staunton  just  at  the  close  of  the 
war. 

Though  my  father  had  served  in  the  Confederate  Army 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  conflict  he  was  a  great  ad- 
mirer of  Lincoln  and  very  much  opposed  to  slavery,  and 
many,  many  times,  even  while  sectional  feeling  was  most 
bitter,  he  told  me  that  the  South  was  fighting  for  an  un- 
just cause.  My  own  hatred  of  slavery  in  all  forms  is 
doubtless  due  to  that  early  teaching  which  was  the  more 
effective  because  of  the  dramatic  incidents  connected  with 
it.  Father's  sympathies  were  with  the  North  but  loyalty 
to  friends,  neighbors  and  a  host  of  relatives  who  were 
heart  and  soul  with  the  South  kept  him  on  that  side.  Like 
so  many  of  these  he  was  now  penniless,  and  I  having  at- 
tained the  advanced  age  of  eleven  years  commenced  to 
look  for  something  to  do. 

Immediately  after  Lee's  surrender  one  railroad  train  a 
day  commenced  to  run  into  Staunton,  and  I  struck  up  a 
friendship  with  the  conductor  which  was  to  prove  not  only 
immediately  profitable  to  me,  but  which  probably  decided 
my  future  career.  One  day  he  said  to  me, 

"  How  would  you  like  to  sell  papers,  Tom?  I  could 
bring  'em  in  for  you  on  my  train  and  I  wouldn't  carry 


6  MY  STORY 

any  for  anybody  else,  so  you  could  charge  whatever  you 
pleased." 

The  exciting  events  attending  the  end  of  the  war  nat- 
urally created  a  brisk  demand  for  news  and  I  eagerly 
seized  this  opportunity  to  get  into  business.  The  Rich- 
mond and  Petersburg  papers  I  retailed  at  fifteen  cents 
each  and  for  "  picture  papers,"  the  illustrated  weeklies,  I 
got  twenty-five  cents  each.  My  monopoly  lasted  five 
weeks.  Then  it  was  abruptly  ended  by  a  change  in  the 
management  of  the  railroad  which  meant  also  a  change  of 
conductors. 

The  eighty-eight  dollars  in  silver  which  this  venture 
netted  me  was  the  first  good  money  our  family  had  seen 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  it  carried  us  from 
Staunton,  Virginia,  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  where  my 
father  hoped  to  make  a  new  start  in  life  among  his  friends 
and  relatives. 

The  lesson  of  privilege  taught  me  by  that  brief  ex- 
perience was  one  I  never  forgot,  for  in  all  my  subsequent 
business  arrangements  I  sought  enterprises  in  which  there 
was  little  or  no  competition.  In  short,  I  was  always  on 
the  lookout  for  somebody  or  something  which  would  stand 
in  the  same  relation  to  me  that  my  friend,  the  conductor, 
had. 

Up  to  this  time  I  had  had  practically  no  schooling, 
though  my  mother  had  managed  to  give  me  some  instruc- 
tion. Mathematics  came  to  me  without  any  effort  what- 
ever, this  aptitude  for  figures  evidently  being  an  inheritance 
from  my  father  and  grandfather.  My  turn  for  mechanics 
came  to  me  from  my  mother.  She  taught  me  to  sew  on 
the  sewing-machine  and  I  remember  my  great  pride  in  a 
dress  skirt  which  I  tucked  for  her  from  top  to  bottom. 


A  MONOPOLIST  IN  THE  MAKING         7 

Our  migrating  days  were  not  yet  over,  for  being  able 
to  borrow  some  money  in  Louisville  my  father  took  us 
all  back  to  Arkansas  where  he  attempted  to  operate  the 
cotton  plantation  with  free  labor.  The  experiment  was 
a  complete  failure,  a  disastrous  flood  being  one  of  the 
contributing  causes. 

Our  next  move  was  to  Evansville,  Indiana,  where  my 
father  engaged  in  various  enterprises  and  where  I  got 
my  one  and  only  full  year  of  schooling.  I  passed  through 
three  grades  in  that  year  and  was  ready  to  enter  High 
School  when  we  again  moved  back  to  Kentucky  —  this 
time  to  a  farm  some  eighteen  miles  from  Louisville. 

We  were  extremely  poor  and  sending  me  to  school  in 
town  was  out  of  the  question.  I  do  not  recall  that  our 
poverty  or  my  lack  of  educational  advantages  had  any 
depressing  influence  upon  me.  What  helped  most  to  make 
up  for  my  meager  schooling  was  my  habit  of  observation 
and  my  investigating  turn  of  mind  —  not  to  call  it  curi- 
osity. I  went  about  with  an  eternal  Why?  upon  my  lips. 
It  was  this  doubtless  which  made  life  so  interesting  that 
I  wasn't  greatly  impressed  by  the  material  condition  of 
the  family;  also  I  had  no  silly  theories  about  work  and 
no  so-called  family  pride  to  deter  me  from  doing  anything 
that  came  my  way  to  do. 

It  never  disturbed  me  in  the  least  to  sweep  out  an  office 
and  I  liked  the  extra  five  dollars  a  month  which  this  job 
paid  me.  It  did  surprise  me  very  much,  however,  when 
some  of  my  well-to-do  friends  and  relatives  would  drive 
by  and  appear  not  to  see  me  when  I  had  charge  of  a  gang 
of  laborers  in  the  street.  My  father  and  mother  were 
quite  as  free  from  any  class  feeling  as  I  was. 

One  of  my  jobs  in  Louisville  was  in  the  office  of  a 


8  MY  STORY 

rolling-mill.  When  my  mother  went  in  to  see  about  getting 
this  job  for  me  she  had  to  wear  a  crocheted  hood  because 
she  had  no  money  with  which  to  buy  a  hat  or  a  bonnet. 
I  spent  more  of  my  time  in  the  mechanical  department  of 
the  mill  than  in  the  office  for  it  was  that  end  of  the  busi- 
ness which  interested  me  most. 

Young  as  I  was,  I  soon  realized  that  this  kind  of  en- 
terprise offered  no  particular  advantage.  There  was  no 
conductor  here  to  hand  out  something  which  wasn't  his 
to  give,  and  a  few  months  later  I  welcomed  an  opportunity 
to  get  into  the  street  railroad  business  in  which  I  was  to 
continue  for  most  of  my  life.  This  appealed  to  me  as 
a  non-competitive  business,  depending  upon  the  special 
privilege  of  public  grants  in  the  highway,  though  I  did 
not  analyze  it  at  that  time.  The  public  side  of  the  ques- 
tion meant  nothing  to  me,  of  course;  in  fact  it  never  oc- 
curred to  me  that  there  was  a  public  side  to  it  until  I  be- 
came familiar  with  Henry  George's  philosophy  a  good 
many  years  later. 

I  remember  how  offended  I  was  when  I  first  read  his 
fascinating  words  and  realized  that  the  things  I  was  doing 
were  the  things  this  man  was  attacking.  Attracted  to  his 
teachings  against  my  will  I  tried  to  find  a  way  of  escape. 
I  didn't  want  to  accept  them;  I  wanted  to  prove  them 
false.  But  this  is  running  ahead  of  my  story. 


II 

THE   MONOPOLIST   MADE 

IT  was  the  first  of  February,  1869,  that  I  went  to  Louis- 
ville to  take  my  job  in  the  rollirtg-mill  and  it  was  at  about 
this  time  that  Bidermann  and  Alfred  V.  du  Pont  bought 
a  street  railroad  in  Louisville.  These  brothers  were 
grandsons  of  Pierre  Samuel  du  Pont,  one  of  the  physio- 
cratic  economists  of  France,  associate  of  Turgot,  Mira- 
beau,  Quesnay  and  Condorcet  to  which  group  "  and  their 
fellows  "  Henry  George  inscribed  his  Protection  or  Free 
Trade,  calling  them  "  those  illustrious  Frenchmen  of  a 
century  ago  who  in  the  night  of  despotism  foresaw  the 
glories  of  the  coming  day."  Pierre  du  Pont,  after  nar- 
rowly escaping  the  guillotine,  came  to  this  country  during 
the  Reign  of  Terror  and  established  on  the  Brandywine 
the  du  Pont  powder  works  known  as  the  E.  I.  du  Pont  de 
Nemours  Powder  Company,  the  concern  that  now  manu- 
factures practically  all  the  high  explosives  in  the  United 
States. 

The  du  Ponts  were  friends  of  our  family  and  gave  me 
an  office  job  in  connection  with  their  newly-acquired  street 
railroad.  I  lived  with  the  family  of  my  uncle  Captain 
Thomas  Coleman  in  Louisville  and  a  lively  family  it  was 
with  its  nine  daughters  and  two  sons.  Though  these  girls 
were  my  cousins  and  I  was  but  fifteen  years  old  I  fell  in 
love  with  one  after  another  of  them  until  I  had  been  in 
love  with  all  except  the  few  who  were  either  too  old  or 

9 


io  MY  STORY 

too  young.  The  associations  of  this  home  and  the  in- 
fluence of  that  splendid  woman,  my  aunt  Dullie  Coleman, 
and  her  daughters  saved  me  from  the  temptations  that 
ordinarily  beset  the  country  boy  in  the  city. 

My  salary  was  seven  dollars  a  week  and  my  duties 
were  varied.  I  collected  and  counted  the  money  which 
had  been  deposited  by  the  passengers  in  the  fare-boxes, 
made  up  small  packages  of  change  for  the  drivers  (the 
cars  had  no  conductors),  and  in  a  short  time  took  entire 
charge  of  the  office  as  bookkeeper  and  cashier.  I  sat  up 
until  eleven  o'clock  every  night  for  a  month  learning  to 
"  keep  books."  At  the  end  of  that  time  a  trial  balance 
had  no  terrors  for  me. 

This  was  of  course  before  the  introduction  of  electricity 
in  street  railway  operation  and  the  cars  were  drawn  by 
mules.  How  I  hated  to  see  horses  and  mules  go  into 
the  street  car  service  where  they  would  be  ground  up  as 
inevitably,  if  not  quite  as  literally,  as  if  put  through  a 
sausage  machine !  It  was  this  feeling  of  pity  for  the  de- 
fenseless creatures  that  first  interested  me  in  cables  and 
electric  propulsion. 

From  the  very  first  it  was  the  operating  end  of  the 
business  that  appealed  to  me.  My  liking  for  mechanics 
was  stimulated  by  my  environment  and  I  was  soon  work- 
ing on  inventions,  some  of  which  I  afterwards  patented. 
From  one  of  these,  a  fare-box,  I  eventually  made  the 
twenty  or  thirty  thousand  dollars  which  gave  me  my  first 
claim  to  being  a  capitalist. 

The  fare-boxes  in  use  up  to  that  time  were  made  for 
paper  money.  Mine  was  the  first  box  for  coins,  paper 
currency  having  just  been  withdrawn  from  circulation. 
It  held  the  coins  on  little  glass  shelves  and  in  plain  sight 


TOM   L.  JOHNSON   AT  SEVENTEEN 
A.   V.    DU    1'ONT  BIDERMANN   DU   PONT 


THE  MONOPOLIST  MADE  n 

until  they  had  been  counted.  Since  any  passenger  as  well 
as  anyone  acting  as  a  spotter  could  count  the  money  there 
wasn't  much  likelihood  that  either  the  drivers  or  the  car 
riders  would  cheat.  This  box  is  still  in  use. 

In  a  few  months  I  was  secretary  of  the  company,  and  at 
about  the  end  of  my  first  year  of  employment  my  father 
came  in  from  the  farm  and  the  du  Fonts  made  him  super- 
intendent of  the  road.  He  continued  in  this  position  until 
he  was  appointed  chief  of  police  of  Louisville,  several 
years  later.  Then  I  became  superintendent,  holding  the 
job  until  1876  when  I  embarked  in  business  for  myself. 

I  may  say,  with  all  propriety,  that  Bidermann  du  Pont, 
the  president  of  the  road,  found  in  me  a  hard  working 
and  efficient  assistant,  but  I  cannot  say  that  I  never  oc- 
casioned him  any  anxiety,  for  my  restless,  eager  nature 
was  constantly  seeking  ways  of  expression  —  which  ways 
were  not  always  either  dignified  or  safe.  For  instance, 
one  night  when  a  lot  of  our  cars  were  lined  up  on  Crown 
Hill,  waiting  to  carry  the  crowds  home  from  a  late  en- 
tertainment in  a  summer  garden,  I  challenged  the  drivers 
to  join  me  in  taking  one  of  the  cars  down  the  hill  as  fast 
as  it  would  go.  The  plan  was  —  to  start  a  car  with  as 
much  speed  as  the  mule  team  could  summon,  when  it  was 
fairly  started  the  driver  to  drop  off  with  the  team,  the 
rest  of  us  to  stay  on  for  no  reason  in  the  world  except 
to  see  "  just  how  fast  she  would  go."  The  drivers  weren't 
very  keen  to  accept  my  challenge,  but  finally  four  of  them 
decided  to  do  so.  After  several  starts  we  got  up  a  rate 
of  speed  rapid  enough  to  suit  us  and  away  we  went.  As 
the  car  tore  madly  down  the  hill  I  recalled  the  railroad 
track  at  the  bottom  and  the  curve  in  our  track  just  beyond 
but  there  really  wasn't  time  to  think  about  what  might 


12  MY  STORY 

happen  if  the  car  and  a  train  should  reach  the  crossing 
at  the  same  instant;  for  just  then  we  shot  over  the  rail- 
road track,  hit  the  curve  which  didn't  divert  the  car  from 
its  straight  course,  and  landed  half-way  through  a  candy- 
shop.  The  company  paid  damages  to  the  shop-keeper, 
and  what  Mr.  du  Pont  thought  of  the  episode  I  never 
knew  for  even  after  the  matter  had  been  adjusted  he  never 
mentioned  it  to  me. 

A  little  while  after  this  when  there  were  some  new 
mules  in  the  stables  waiting  to  be  trained  to  car  work, 
I  decided  to  hitch  the  most  refractory  and  unpromising 
team  to  a  buggy  and  "  break  them  in."  A  little  driver 
named  Snapper  joined  me  in  this  enterprise.  With  much 
difficulty,  and  the  assistance  of  some  dozen  darkeys,  we 
got  the  mules  into  harness  and  hooked  up  to  an  old,  high- 
seated  buggy.  I  had  the  reins,  Snapper  took  his  place  on 
the  seat  beside  me  and  we  were  off.  It  wasn't  long  before 
I  knew  to  a  dead  certainty  that  those  mules  were  running 
away. 

We  had  a  clear  stretch  of  road  before  us,  however,  and 
I  reflected  that  they'd  have  to  stop  sometime  and  trusted 
to  luck  that  we'd  be  able  to  hang  on  until  they  did.  But 
presently,  just  ahead  of  us,  there  appeared  a  great,  cov- 
ered wagon,  with  a  fat,  sun-bonneted  German  woman  on 
the  seat  driving.  She  was  jogging  along  at  a  comforta- 
ble pace,  all  unconscious  of  the  cyclone  which  was  ap- 
proaching from  behind.  To  get  around  her  wagon  was 
impossible,  but  here  was  my  chance  to  stop  our  runaway  I 
I  steered  the  mules  straight  for  the  wagon,  one  on  one 
side,  one  on  the  other,  and  the  pole  of  the  buggy  caught 
the  wagon  box  fairly  in  the  middle.  In  the  mix-up  Snap- 
per and  I  fell  out,  the  mules  dashed  on  with  some  rem- 


THE  MONOPOLIST  MADE  13 

nants  of  the  wreck  still  attached  to  them,  and  the  old  lady 
was  the  most  surprised  individual  you  ever  saw  in  your 
life.  She  wasn't  hurt,  and  neither  were  we,  nor  was  the 
wagon  much  harmed. 

The  president  of  the  road  was  as  silent  on  this  foolhardy 
adventure  as  he  had  been  on  the  candy-shop  scrape,  but 
Mr.  Alfred  du  Pont  took  me  severely  to  task  for  it,  saying 
that  while  he  did  not  object  to  my  breaking  mules  he  did 
object  most  seriously  to  having  me  break  my  neck. 

I  had  not  been  in  the  street  railroad  business  long  be- 
fore I  determined  to  become  an  owner.  I  didn't  want  to 
work  on  a  salary  any  longer  than  I  could  help.  My  fond- 
ness for  girls  in  general  and  girl  cousins  in  particular  cul- 
minated in  my  marriage,  October  8,  1874,  to  a  distant 
kinswoman  of  my  own  name,  Maggie  J.  Johnson,  when 
she  was  seventeen  and  I  was  twenty.  At  twenty-two  I 
purchased  the  majority  of  the  stock  of  the  street  railways 
of  Indianapolis  from  William  H.  English,  afterwards  can- 
didate for  vice-president  of  the  United  States  in  the  Gar- 
field-Arthur  and  Hancock-English  campaign. 

I  went  to  Indianapolis  to  see  Mr.  English  in  the  hope 
of  interesting  him  in  my  fare-box.  He  said  to  me, 

"  I  don't  want  to  buy  a  fare-box,  young  man,  but  I  have 
a  street  railroad  to  sell." 

My  business  dealings  with  him  were  so  unpleasant  and 
the  charges  which  my  lawyer  (afterwards  Governor  Por- 
ter of  Indiana)  brought  against  him  in  a  law  suit  so  severe, 
that  the  petition  embodying  them  was  used  by  his  Re- 
publican opponents  as  a  campaign  document.  That  fight 
with  Mr.  English  was  my  first  great  business  struggle,  and 
it  was  a  fight  for  a  privilege  —  for  street  railway  grants 
in  the  city  of  Indianapolis. 


i4  MY  STORY 

I  had  some  money,  but  not  enough  for  my  purchase. 
Mr.  Bidermann  du  Pont,  though  he  had  no  faith  in  my 
business  associates  and  though  the  road  was  in  a  badly 
demoralized  state,  loaned  me  the  thirty  thousand  dollars 
I  needed  with  no  security  whatever  except  my  health,  as 
he  himself  expressed  it.  That  loan  meant  a  lot  to  me, 
but  the  confidence  which  went  with  it  meant  more,  for 
Mr.  du  Pont  was  the  first  business  man  to  give  me  any 
encouragement. 

When  I  made  my  final  payment  to  him  some  five  or  six 
years  later  I  told  him  that  my  money  obligation  was  now 
cancelled,  but  that  a  life-time  of  friendship  for  him  and 
his  could  not  discharge  my  greater  obligation  for  his  faith 
in  me. 

My  father  went  with  me  to  Indianapolis  and  became 
president  of  the  company.  When  a  friend  asked  him : 

"  If  you  are  president  of  the  road,  what  is  Tom?  "  he 
replied,  "Oh,  Tom's  nothing!  He's  just  the  board  of 
directors." 

As  this  board  of  directors,  I  speedily  realized  that  our 
enterprise  would  be  a  failure  unless  we  could  free  our- 
selves from  Mr.  English's  persecutions.  He  was  old 
enough  to  be  my  father,  and  his  attitude  towards  me  was 
arrogant.  He  was  the  most  influential  man  in  Indianapolis 
and  not  above  threatening  us  with  his  power  over  the  city 
government  unless  we  cooperated  with  him  in  every  way, 
especially  in  getting  tenants  for  his  houses  of  which  he 
owned  about  two  hundred,  and  which  he  rented  to  em- 
ployes of  our  road  and  to  other  workingmen. 

Mr.  English  was  a  typical  representative  of  the  power- 
ful agent  of  special  privilege  of  that  day.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  one  of  the  principal  banks  of  the  city. 


THE  MONOPOLIST  MADE  15 

The  people's  money  goes  into  the  banks  in  the  form 
of  deposits.  The  banker  uses  this  money  to  capitalize 
public  service  corporations  which  are  operated  for  private 
profit  instead  of  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  How  in-  ' 
congruous  that  the  people's  own  savings  should  be  used 
by  Privilege  to  oppress  them ! 

Mr.  English's  great  asset  was  his  domination  of  the 
local  city  government  through  which  he  controlled  the  tax- 
ing machinery  of  the  city,  thereby  keeping  his  own  taxes 
down  at  the  expense  of  the  small  tax-payer. 

When  I  bought  into  the  railroad  he  turned  the  office 
of  treasurer  over  to  me  as  his  successor  and  at  the  first 
meeting  of  the  board  of  directors  we  passed  resolutions 
stating  that  his  accounts  had  been  audited  and  giving  him 
a  receipt  for  his  stewardship.  When  I  objected  to  this 
because  I  had  not  seen  the  books  he  said  it  was  a  mere 
matter  of  form  and  that  he  would  turn  them  over  to  me 
immediately  after  the  meeting.  It  was  eleven  months  be- 
fore I  ever  got  a  look  at  those  books  and  then  my  right 
to  them  had  been  established  by  a  lawsuit.  After  going 
through  the  books  I  forced  Mr.  English  to  make  several 
restitutions  of  very  large  amounts  of  money  to  the  company. 
Once  we  had  a  disastrous  fire  and  he  immediately  notified 
the  insurance  companies  that  the  damages  must  be  paid  to 
him.  We  had  to  consent  to  this  or  expose  ourselves  to 
expensive  and  annoying  litigation. 

He  kept  us  in  constant  hot  water.  We  had  paid  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  purchase  price  in  cash  and  given  notes 
running  through  a  period  of  ten  years  for  the  remaining 
ninety  per  cent.  His  reason  for  selling  to  us  in  the  first 
place  seems  to  have  been  to  rid  himself  of  some  partners 
whom  he  did  not  like.  He  evidently  expected  to  make 


1 6  MY  STORY 

us  very  sick  of  our  bargain,  to  benefit  by  whatever  pay- 
ments we  made  and  finally  to  get  the  property  back  into 
his  own  hands  unencumbered  by  undesirable  partners. 

I  did  not  propose  to  be  frozen  out  in  this  manner,  how- 
ever, and  was  able  to  borrow  enough  money  from  F.  M. 
Churchman,  an  Indianapolis  banker,  to  purchase  our  own 
notes  at  fourteen  cents  on  the  dollar.  It  happened  that 
Mr.  Churchman  was  not  on  friendly  terms  with  Mr.  Eng- 
lish and  was  the  more  willing  on  that  account  to  help  me. 
He  and  his  friends  were  interested  in  the  gas  company  and 
were  familiar  with  the  business  possibilities  of  public  serv- 
ice corporations.  He  seemed  impressed  with  my  ability 
to  make  the  railroad  pay  which,  by  economy  and  careful 
management,  it  soon  commenced  to  do.  We  never  felt 
quite  safe  from  Mr.  English  even  after  we  had  paid  him 
off  and  had  acquired  the  minority  stock,  but  in  Mr.  Church- 
man and  his  friends  we  had  strong  and  influential  allies. 

As  I  look  back  on  those  days  now  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  limit  to  my  energy,  my  ambition,  or  my  capacity 
for  hard  work;  but  then,  as  in  all  my  later  life,  I  took  a 
great  deal  of  recreation.  I  couldn't  have  worked  so  much, 
if  I  had  played  less.  I  was  fond  of  baseball,  billiards 
and  horseback  riding  and  bicycling  and  automobiling  were 
to  come  in  their  time;  but  after  all  I  loved  my  work  more 
than  anything  else,  especially  the  mechanical  side  of  it  — 
the  experimenting  and  inventing  —  and  that  was  really 
my  greatest  recreation. 


Ill 

BUSINESS  AND   POLITICS 

I  NOW  began  to  branch  out  in  street  railway  enterprises 
on  my  own  account  and  in  1879  —  just  ten  years  after  my 
entrance  into  the  business  as  an  office  boy  —  I  became  a 
bidder  for  a  street  railway  grant  in  Cleveland.  Mark 
Hanna  was  a  director  and  Elias  Simms  the  president  of  a 
company  which  was  after  this  same  grant. 

Captain  Simms,  as  he  was  called,  was  an  ex-steamboat 
man  and  a  dredging  contractor,  a  very  considerable  figure 
in  the  community.  He  was  well  to  do,  having  made  a 
great  deal  of  money  out  of  dredging  contracts  which  he 
secured  through  his  hold  on  the  city  councils.  He  openly 
complained  of  the  methods  of  his  friends  in  the  council 
somewhat  after  this  fashion:  "All  councilmen  want  is 
money.  Just  have  to  go  around  with  my  pocketbook  in 
my  hand  all  the  time." 

Largely  because  of  his  councilmanic  control  he  became 
interested  in  street  railways.  He  knew  nothing  about  the 
business  itself  but  relied  for  success  on  his  ability  to  get 
grants.  He  was  much  more  prominent  in  street  railroad 
matters  than  Mr.  Hanna  at  this  time,  Hanna  being  very 
much  younger  and  having  other  business  interests. 

The  law  stipulated  that  new  grants  should  go  to  the  bid- 
der offering  the  lowest  rate  of  fare,  but  included  also  a 
provision  (of  which  I  was  ignorant)  for  extensions  to  ex- 
isting lines. 


1 8  MY  STORY 

The  bid  of  the  Hanna-Simms  company  provided  for  a 
five-cent  fare,  while  mine  offered  six  tickets  for  a  quarter, 
whereupon  the  council  threw  out  all  the  bids  and  made  the 
grant  to  Mr.  Hanna  and  his  associates  as  an  extension  to 
their  lines  at  the  five-cent  fare. 

So  that  was  the  way  it  was  done,  was  it? 

Well,  I  was  only  twenty-five  and  willing  to  learn. 

I  now  purchased  the  Pearl  street  line  on  the  west  side 
and  subsequently  got  my  various  grants  as  extensions  to 
that  line,  though  when  I  bought  it,  it  was  under  lease  to 
Hanna  and  Simms  and  I  didn't  get  possession  for  over 
eighteen  months. 

Most  of  my  operations  in  Cleveland  were  based  on 
grants  already  in  existence  which  I  purchased  from  people 
who  did  not  know  their  real  value.  This  city  looked  like 
a  good  field  to  me  for  it  then  had  eight  street  railroads 
operated  by  different  companies  and  owned  by  bankers, 
politicians,  business  and  professional  men  who  had  been 
successful  in  various  undertakings,  but  without  a  street 
railroad  man  in  the  entire  list.  I  thought  my  knowledge 
would  give  me  some  advantage  there. 

Cleveland  is  built  on  two  plateaus  some  fifty  or  sixty 
feet  above  the  level  of  Lake  Erie.  Each  of  these  plateaus 
runs  down  a  sheer  bluff  into  a  valley  through  which  the 
Cuyahoga  river  flows.  The  river  is  less  than  200  feet 
wide,  but  bridges  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long  are  re- 
quired to  span  the  valley  and  bring  the  plateaus  onto  a 
level.  Before  these  plateaus,  known  as  the  West  Side 
and  East  Side,  were  connected  by  a  viaduct  the  Simms- 
Hanna  horse-cars  traveled  down  the  steep  hill  on  the  west 
side,  across  a  short  river  bridge  and  up  the  hill  on  the 
east  side. 


TOM  L.  JOHNSON   AT  TWENTY-SIX 

'Just  ten  years  after  my  entrance  into  the  business  as  an  office  boy  1  became  a  bidder  tor  a 
street  railway  grant  in  Cleveland." 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  19 

The  viaduct  was  completed  by  the  time  I  got  possession 
of  the  Pearl  street  line. 

At  this  time  all  the  car  lines,  except  the  Pearl  street, 
which  had  its  terminal  on  the  west  side,  ran  to  the  center 
of  the  city  only.  It  cost  two  fares  to  go  from  one  side  of 
town  to  the  other,  passengers  going  east  or  west  being 
obliged  to  change  at  the  public  square  since  there  were 
no  through  lines.  A  very  short  ride,  if  it  necessitated 
using  two  lines,  cost  ten  cents  also,  while  the  authorized 
fare  for  the  entire  system  (covering  the  city  and  extending 
half  a  mile  beyond  the  city  limits)  was  sixteen  cents. 
Cleveland  was  not  unlike  other  cities  in  this  respect.  Most 
of  them  had  several  private  companies  and  the  people 
who  were  obliged  to  use  the  various  lines  had  to  pay  sev- 
eral fares. 

One  of  my  early  street  railway  discoveries  was  that  the 
best  way  to  make  money  was  to  operate  a  through  line 
at  a  single  fare,  and  to  supplement  this  by  the  transfer 
system  where  more  than  two  lines  were  involved.  In 
these  days  when  this  principle  of  operation  is  in  such  gen- 
eral use  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  it  was  not  always  rec- 
ognized, but  I  believe  I  was  the  first  to  introduce  this  plan 
of  operation  which  I  developed  early  in  Indianapolis. 

The  Pearl  street  line  had  its  terminal  at  the  West  Side 
Market  House  from  which  point  to  the  center  of  the 
city  it  operated  over  the  Hanna-Simms  tracks.  Passengers 
from  the  Pearl  street  cars  were  obliged  to  change  to  Mr. 
Hanna's  cars  at  the  Market  House  and  to  pay  an  addi- 
tional fare.  Failing  to  get  permission  to  operate  our 
cars  over  the  Hanna-Simms  tracks  we  established  an  om- 
nibus line  and  carried  our  passengers  without  extra  fare 
from  our  terminal  to  the  heart  of  the  city  in  buses.  This 


20  MY  STORY 

half  mile  of  Mr.  Hanna's  track  which  lay  between  the 
end  of  the  Pearl  street  line  and  the  viaduct  was  what  pre- 
vented our  cars  from  running  to  the  center  of  the  city. 

When  the  viaduct  was  completed  the  city  laid  car  tracks 
over  the  bridge  though  it  had  no  legal  right  to  do  so. 
The  State  legislature  not  having  delegated  to  the  city 
the  right  to  build,  own  or  operate  a  street  car  line,  it  had 
no  right  to  lay  tracks  even  on  its  own  property.  If  the 
street  railroad  company  which  was  empowered  by  law  to 
build  these  tracks  had  done  so  instead  of  permitting  the 
city  to  do  it,  the  whole  street  railway  situation  in  Cleveland 
would  have  been  changed  and  my  operations  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  eliminated. 

To  permit  the  city  to  build  these  tracks  over  the  bridge 
was  the  greatest  blunder  Simms  and  Hanna  ever  made  for 
it  was  the  city  ownership  of  this  three-quarters  of  a  mile  of 
track  that  gave  the  city  so  much  power  in  the  street  rail- 
way controversy  which  occurred  years  later.  These  tracks 
terminated  at  the  beginning  of  four  tracks  in  Superior 
street,  which  was  free  territory  and  which  led  to  the  heart 
of  the  city.  The  three-cent-fare  contest  running  through 
my  nine  years  as  mayor  might  have  resulted  in  final  de- 
feat for  the  people  but  for  this  mistake  on  the  part  of  the 
railroad  company.  I  say  mistake  on  their  part  advisedly, 
for  I  never  attributed  the  laying  of  those  tracks  on  the 
viaduct  to  any  foresight  of  the  city  council.  They  built 
wiser  than  they  knew. 

City  ownership  of  tracks,  the  city's  right  to  allow  com- 
panies the  use  of  tracks,  short-lived  grants  have  always 
been  the  most  powerful  weapons  in  the  hands  of  the  public 
for  resisting  the  aggressions  of  street  railway  monopolies. 
Cleveland  had  all  three  of  these  advantages. 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  21 

The  story  of  that  contest  belongs  to  a  much  later  period, 
but  I  may  say  here  that  it  might  have  been  very  different 
if  Mr.  Hanna  had  not  become  absorbed  in  national  poli- 
tics. If  his  chief  interest  had  centered  in  street  railway 
operations  in  Cleveland  the  city  would  have  had  to  con- 
tend against  some  sources  of  corruption  which  were  for- 
tunately lacking  in  our  nine  years'  war,  for  Mr.  Hanna 
regarded  politics  as  merely  a  business  asset.  In  the  early 
days  I  cared  nothing  for  the  political  side  of  the  game. 
My  interest  was  in  developing  street  railway  systems  rely- 
ing on  my  knowledge  of  the  business  for  success.  But 
with  Mr.  Hanna  and  his  kind  street  railroads  were  a  side 
issue,  and  from  the  time  I  came  into  contact  with  him 
practically  everything  I  did  in  the  street  railway  business 
became  a  political  question.  Indeed,  it  was  a  case  of 
playing  politics  or  getting  out  of  the  business. 

My  first  contests  with  Mr.  Hanna  were  on  the  west 
side,  but  later  we  extended  our  operations  and  our  fighting 
to  the  east  side.  First  and  last  we  had  many  bitter 
struggles  but  never  any  personal  disagreements.  I 
always  had  perfect  confidence  in  Mr.  Hanna's  keeping 
his  word  in  any  transaction  and  he  never  disappointed 
me. 

We  ran  our  buses  about  a  year,  Mr.  Hanna's  company 
fighting  every  move  we  made,  and  then  it  happened  that 
they  wanted  to  renew  a  franchise  which  included  that 
pivotal  half  mile  of  track.  By  this  time  the  contest  be- 
tween us  had  become  a  matter  of  public  interest  and  had 
been  the  chief  issue  in  several  councilmanic  elections.  The 
town  was  making  it  so  hot  for  the  council  that  in  spite 
of  Mr.  Hanna's  tremendous  personal  influence  and  his 
powerful  backing,  the  councilmen  refused  to  grant  the  re- 


22  MY  STORY 

newal  except  on  condition  that  we  be  permitted  to  operate 
our  cars  on  his  tracks. 

In  Mr.  Hanna's  eyes  our  victory  was  a  reflection  on  the 
management  of  Captain  Simms,  the  president  of  the  com- 
pany, or  at  least  a  sign  that  Simms's  power  was  waning, 
and  it  led  to  a  quarrel  between  them.  Simms  was  then 
more  prominent  in  street  railway  circles  than  Hanna,  and 
our  success  was  regarded  more  particularly  as  a  victory 
over  him  than  over  Hanna.  The  quarrel  resulted  in 
Hanna  buying  out  Simms  and  his  other  partners.  No 
doubt  Hanna  reasoned  that  if  there  was  fighting  to  do  in 
the  future  he  would  do  it  himself. 

In  the  meantime  I  had  purchased  the  Jennings  avenue 
line,  a  narrow  gauge  railroad  on  the  west  side  running 
through  a  low-lying  section  known  as  the  "  flats,"  and  this 
gave  me  control  of  two  of  the  eight  street  railway  companies 
of  the  city.  My  next  move  was  to  try  to  get  a  grant  em- 
powering me  to  build  east  side  lines  to  be  operated  across 
the  city  in  connection  with  the  Pearl  street  and  Jennings 
avenue  lines  for  a  single  fare. 

Mr.  Hanna  and  all  the  other  street  railroad  interests  in 
the  city  were  lined  up  solidly  against  this  proposition. 
They  contended  that  we  could  not  possibly  make  our  ven- 
ture pay,  that  because  of  the  length  of  the  haul  we  were 
virtually  offering  to  carry  passengers  for  two  and  a  half 
cents,  whereas  the  actual  cost  to  the  company  was  three 
cents  per  passenger. 

The  real  strength  of  the  Hanna  forces  lay  not  in  their 
arguments  but  in  their  influence  with  the  council.  Coun- 
cilmen  known  to  be  on  our  side  were  spirited  out  of  town 
on  various  pretexts.  One,  a  railroad  conductor,  was  sud- 
denly sent  back  on  his  run  one  night  to  keep  him  away,  and 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  23 

thus  the  steam  railroads  were  drawn  into  the  contest. 
Henry  Everett,  manager  of  one  of  the  rival  companies, 
went  to  Indianapolis  and  tried  to  organize  against 
us  there  a  fight  which  would  divert  my  attention  from  the 
Cleveland  situation.  He  failed  to  accomplish  anything 
beyond  giving  me  some  extra  work  and  a  good  deal  of  care. 

Mr.  Hanna  was  present  at  the  council  meeting  every 
Monday  night  and  so  was  I.  The  contest  went  on  for  a 
long  time.  By  and  by  the  odds  seemed  to  be  in  our  favor. 
Two  councilmen,  Crowley  and  Smith  by  name,  who  had 
always  voted  with  the  Simms-Hanna  interests,  lined  up  on 
our  side.  I  could  not  understand  why. 

Finally,  it  occurred  to  me  that  possibly  Simms  might  be 
able  to  throw  some  light  on  the  subject.  One  night  I 
hired  an  old  public  hack  and  drove  over  to  his  home  on 
the  west  side.  In  response  to  my  knock  he  came  to  the 
door  himself  —  in  his  shirt  sleeves  and  chewing  tobacco  as 
usual. 

"  Come  in,  Johnson,  come  in,"  he  said,  showing  no 
signs  of  surprise  or  any  other  emotion  at  the  sight  of  me. 

He  gave  me  a  chair  near  the  stove,  and  taking  another, 
sat  down  to  listen  to  what  I  had  to  say.  I  came  to  the 
object  of  my  visit  at  once,  asking  him  to  explain  about 
Crowley  and  Smith.  He  was  impassive,  non-committal, 
almost  silent  for  a  long  time,  but  finally  in  disjointed  sen- 
tences I  got  the  following  from  him : 

"  You're  a  smart  young  feller,  Johnson.  Beat  me, 
didn't  ye?  Yes,  ye  beat  me.  Folks  might  say  I  ain't 
very  smart.  Everybody  knows  Hanna's  smart,  though. 
Takes  more'n  a  fool  to  beat  Hanna.  If  you  beat  Hanna, 
nobody'll  say  that  any  damn  fool  could  beat  Simms.  Ye 
beat  me;  I  want  ye  to  beat  Hanna." 


24  MY  STORY 

So  with  the  votes  of  Crowley  and  Smith  we  did  beat 
Hanna,  but  without  a  vote  to  spare.  Our  ordinance  got 
just  the  nineteen  votes  necessary  to  pass  it. 

Could  anything  show  more  forcibly  than  this  incident 
does  the  game  of  politics  as  it  was  played  in  Cleveland 
then  and  as  it  is  played  in  other  cities  ?  Think  of  a  single 
man  being  able  to  control  the  votes  of  two  councilmen 
to  satisfy  a  desire  for  personal  retaliation  or  revenge! 
Think  of  men  elected  to  public  office  with  no  more  con- 
ception of  their  obligation  to  their  constituents,  the  com- 
munity, than  to  permit  themselves  to  be  so  used! 

Taken  all  in  all,  that  was  the  biggest  street  railroad 
fight  of  my  life,  and  its  innumerable  and  annoying  details 
severely  taxed  my  optimism  many  times;  but  after  all,  I 
had  the  best  of  it,  for  besides  being  possessed  of  the  en- 
thusiasm that  went  with  my  temperament  and  my  youth 
(I  was  not  yet  twenty-eight),  I  had  the  popular  side  of 
the  contest  in  my  favor.  Looking  back  upon  it  now,  I 
realize  that  that  was  the  real  reason  for  my  success,  al- 
though at  the  time  I  actually  attributed  it  to  my  own  busi- 
ness sagacity. 

That  venture  turned  out  to  be  the  most  profitable  of 
any  of  my  street  railroad  enterprises.  My  competitors' 
prophecies  that  it  would  not  pay  failed  dismally.  Of 
course  one  of  the  immediate  effects  of  my  securing  the 
franchise  was  to  compel  the  other  companies  to  follow 
our  example  and  operate  through  lines  at  a  single  rate  of 
fare. 

That  street  railroad  fight  begun  in  Cleveland  in  1879 
was  no  mere  battle  but  the  beginning  of  a  thirty  years' 
war,  though  certainly  none  of  us  then  engaged  in  it  had 
the  slightest  idea  what  was  to  come.  Yet,  I  have  always 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  25 

thought  that  Mr.  Hanna  anticipated  many  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  great  struggle  which  was  to  follow,  for  it 
was  after  my  first  victory  over  him  in  the  matter  of  gain- 
ing the  right  to  operate  over  his  lines  that  he  telegraphed 
me  in  Indianapolis  proposing  a  partnership  and  a  consoli- 
dation of  our  interests.  I  wired  my  refusal. 

When  I  met  him  the  next  time  I  was  in  Cleveland,  Mr. 
Hanna  asked  me  why  I  had  declined  his  proposition, 
pointing  out  as  advantages  to  such  an  arrangement  his 
acquaintance  and  influence  with  bankers  and  his  familiarity 
with  the  political  end  of  the  game  and  my  knowledge  of 
and  experience  in  the  street  railroad  business  itself.  My 
answer  was  that  we  were  too  much  alike ;  that  as  associates 
it  would  be  a  question  of  time,  and  a  short  time  only  until 
one  of  us  would  "  crowd  the  other  clear  off  the  bench;  " 
that  we  would  make  good  opponents,  not  good 
partners. 

I  never  have  had  any  occasion  to  modify  that  opinion. 

As  Mr.  Hanna  and  I  fought  in  Cleveland,  so  do  other 
individuals,  other  interests  fight  in  other  cities.  And  so 
long  as  the  street  railways  of  our  cities  are  operated  by 
private  interests  so  long  will  this  unholy  warfare  con- 
tinue. I  had  no  conception  of  the  character  of  the  strug- 
gle I  was  engaged  in  then,  but  I  know  now  that  the  cure 
for  this  evil  with  all  its  possibilities  of  terrible  consequences 
to  men  individually  and  to  society  collectively  is  the  muni- 
cipal ownership  of  street  railways. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  political  evils  of  our  cities 
is  due  to  private  ownership  of  public  utilities.  Private 
ownership  lodges  the  power  to  grant  franchises  and  special 
privileges  in  some  council,  legislature  or  other  public  body 
or  official.  Just  as  soon  as  a  man  becomes  the  owner  of 


26  MY  STORY 

stock  in  a  public-service  corporation,  he  has  an  interest 
absolutely  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the  city. 

The  more  "  liberal  "  the  terms  of  the  franchise  the 
worse  the  bargain  for  the  city  and  the  public.  The  class 
which  by  reason  of  its  position  should  be  our  best  citizens 
is  best  served  by  the  worst  city  government. 

The  merchant,  the  manufacturer,  real-estate  dealer  and 
mechanic  are  all  benefited  by  whatever  will  tend  to  reduce 
the  cost  of  car  fare,  gas,  water,  garbage  collection  and 
taxes,  while  the  owner  of  stock  in  a  street  railway,  gas 
or  water  company  is  interested  to  have  the  cost  of  these 
services  as  high  as  may  be.  Lawyers,  bankers,  merchants, 
all  are  excluded  from  active  participation  in  city  politics 
by  this  conflict  of  interests.  The  community  is  thereby 
deprived  of  the  service  of  many  of  its  ablest  men. 

Private  ownership  not  only  operates  to  exclude  a  com- 
paratively small  group  of  able  men  from  public  service, 
but  it  extends  its  influence  to  that  larger  body  —  the  elec- 
torate, the  people  as  a  whole.  By  owning  or  controlling 
newspapers  it  is  possible  for  the  franchise  corporations 
to  mislead  public  opinion.  They  make  a  daily,  hourly 
business  of  politics,  raising  up  men  in  this  ward  or  that, 
identifying  them  with  their  machines,  promoting  them 
from  delegates  to  city  conventions  to  city  offices.  They 
are  always  at  work  protecting  and  building  up  a  business 
interest  that  lives  only  through  its  political  strength.  The 
watered  securities  of  franchise  corporations  are  politics  cap- 
italized. 

Regulation  by  city  or  commission  will  not  correct  these 
evils.  The  more  stringent  the  regulation,  the  more  bitter 
will  be  the  civic  strife.  Only  through  municipal  owner- 
ship can  the  gulf  which  divides  the  community  into  a  small 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  27 

dominant  class  on  one  side  and  the  unorganized  people 
on  the  other  be  bridged;  only  through  municipal  owner- 
ship can  the  talent  of  the  city  be  identified  with  the  inter- 
ests of  the  city;  only  by  making  men's  ambitions  and  pe- 
cuniary interests  identical  with  the  welfare  of  the  city  can 
civil  warfare  be  ended. 

Municipal  ownership  will  work  betterment  in  service, 
reduce  its  cost  to  the  people  and  purify  politics  by  ex- 
tinguishing a  powerful  interest  hostile  to  good  govern- 
ment. 


IV 

THE   TRAINING   OF  A   MONOPOLIST 

BECOMING  a  monopolist  at  the  age  of  eleven  when  a 
railroad  conductor  gave  me  a  corner  on  the  sale  of  news- 
papers is  without  doubt  the  thing  which  made  me  look 
out  for  a  business  in  which  there  was  little  or  no  competi- 
tion, and  the  accident  of  being  taken  into  a  street  railroad 
office  was  what  caused  me  to  select  that  particular  line  of 
non-competitive  enterprise  as  my  field. 

One  isn't  conscious  of  the  significance  of  these  events 
at  the  time  but  as  a  man  looks  back  over  his  life  he  can 
put  his  finger  on  the  few  experiences  which  are  responsible 
for  his  most  profound  convictions  and  which  have  deter- 
mined his  general  line  of  conduct. 

My  experiences  with  William  H.  English  impressed 
upon  me  the  necessity  of  looking  very  sharply  to  my  own 
interests  in  all  future  enterprises,  but  the  relation  between 
his  business  and  the  municipal  government  of  Indianapolis 
passed  entirely  over  my  head.  I  was  very  young  and  not 
in  the  least  conscious  of  the  connection  between  business 
and  politics.  It  was  reserved  for  Mark  Hanna  to  teach 
me  that. 

When  I  read  Henry  George  I  came  to  a  realizing  sense 
of  the  menace  of  Privilege,  and  what  I  saw  at  Johnstown, 
following  the  flood  of  1889,  caused  me  to  realize  the 
menace  of  charity  —  a  fact  not  so  commonly  recognized,  I 
believe,  as  the  dangerous  power  of  Privilege  and  not  al- 

28 


JOHNSON  COMPANY   WORKS 

Taken  during  early  history  of  company  when  Mr.  Johnson  was  connected  with  it 


RECENT   PICTl'RE   OF  JOHNSON   COMPANY   WORKS 
Town  of  Moxham,  Seventeenth  Ward  of  Johnstown,  Pa. 


THE  TRAINING  OF  A  MONOPOLIST     29 

ways  correlated  with  it  in  the  mind  of  the  student  of  social 
conditions. 

It  was  a  new  invention  which  led  to  my  going  into 
business  in  Johnstown.  I  had  invented  a  girder  groove 
rail,  or  thought  I  had.  Subsequent  developments  showed 
that  a  similar  rail  had  been  made  earlier  in  England. 
Mine  was  a  steam  railroad  T  rail  with  a  street  railroad 
wearing  surface.  Attempts  to  manufacture  these  rails 
from  iron  at  Birmingham,  Alabama,  and  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky, had  failed  so  completely  as  to  cripple  the  concerns 
that  had  made  the  experiments.  There  were  insurmounta- 
ble mechanical  difficulties  in  using  iron,  and  our  failures 
led  us  to  look  for  a  firm  which  would  manufacture  them 
for  us  from  steel.  We  proposed  making  these  rails  for 
the  market  as  well  as  for  use  in  our  street  railways. 

Just  as  I  thought  I  had  invented  the  rail,  so  my  asso- 
ciate, Arthur  J.  Moxham,  thought  he  had  invented  the 
best  process  for  rolling  them.  Both  the  rail  and  the  man- 
ufacturing process,  therefore,  were  protected  by  patents, 
not  very  strong  patents,  to  be  sure,  but  they  served  as  a 
good  business  bluff  and  kept  others  out  of  the  field. — 
Special  privilege  again !  Not  typified  by  a  friendly  train 
conductor  this  time,  but  by  the  patent  laws  of  the  United 
States  1  —  In  due  time  we  were  so  strongly  entrenched  in 
a  business  way  that  we  didn't  need  patent  protection. 

We  selected  the  Cambria  Iron  Company  at  Johnstown, 
Pennsylvania,  as  the  concern  which  should  manufacture 
our  rails.  We  wanted  to  make  the  best  possible  terms 
with  them.  Realizing  our  importance  as  customers,  they 
were  eager  to  meet  us  half  way.  We  exchanged  courtesies 
at  a  lively  rate.  Mr.  Moxham  and  I  were  frequently 
entertained  by  them  at  the  club  and  invited  to  the  houses 


30  MY  STORY 

of  the  officials  to  dinner  and  other  social  affairs.  I  man- 
aged to  get  out  of  these  engagements  whenever  possible, 
leaving  the  social  responsibilities  to  Mr.  Moxham  who 
was  admirably  qualified  for  them.  He  was  a  delightful 
entertainer.  It  was  when  our  negotiations  had  reached 
a  critically  important  stage  that,  returning  from  a  dinner 
at  the  home  of  one  of  the  Cambria  officials  one  night, 
he  found  me  playing  checkers  with  the  bootblack  at  the 
club.  This  was  too  much!  If  I  would  leave  the  social 
amenities  to  him,  I  might  at  least  so  conduct  myself  in 
his  absence  as  not  to  scandalize  the  community  and  jeopar- 
dize our  interests.  He  scored  me  roundly  for  my  ex- 
hibition of  bad  taste,  "  if  not  disgraceful  conduct."  When 
he  was  at  the  height  of  his  indignation,  I  broke  in  with 
my  defense: 

"  But  Arthur,  you  don't  know  what  a  hell  of  a  good 
game  of  checkers  this  boy  plays !  " 

Happily  the  checker  game  didn't  interfere  with  our 
negotiations,  and  presently  the  day  on  which  we  were  to 
sign  the  agreement  came  round.  We  approached  the  con- 
ference in  fear  and  trembling,  for  in  our  minds  there  had 
arisen  the  question  of  how  long  the  contract  should  run. 
We  wanted  a  short  contract  but  were  perfectly  sure  the 
Cambria  people  would  hold  out  for  a  long  one.  To  our 
surprise  D.  J.  Morrell,  the  president,  suggested  a  contract 
terminable  at  the  will  of  either  side  on  three  months'  no- 
tice. This  was  exactly  what  we  wanted  but  I  couldn't 
refrain  from  asking  Mr.  Morrell  why  his  side  proposed 
such  terms.  His  answer  taught  me  a  lesson  which  I  never 
forgot. 

He  said  that  in  making  contracts  with  the  public  for 
franchises  or  public  rights  or  grants,  one  should  strive 


THE  TRAINING  OF  A  MONOPOLIST     31 

for  a  long  time  contract  or  one  in  perpetuity  if  possible, 
since  public  interests  in  contest  with  private  rights  were 
rarely  successful;  but  that  between  private  interests  long 
contracts  were  foolish,  since  the  contract  never  survived 
the  mutual  desires  of  the  contracting  parties ;  that  if  either 
side  wished  to  terminate  the  contract  it  was  always  possible 
to  find  a  way  to  do  so. 

"  The  greatest  strength  of  private  contracts,"  said  he, 
"  is  not  expressed  in  words  or  legal  phrases  but  is  in  the 
fact  that  such  a  contract  pays." 

In  his  long  experience,  he  said,  he  had  found  private 
contracts  profitable  to  one  side  only,  usually  productive 
of  so  much  bad  blood  as  to  prevent  favorable  modifica- 
tions, and  not  worth  the  paper  they  were  written  on. 

He  had  there  a  glimpse  of  a  great  truth  which  had 
come  to  him  through  observation  and  actual  experience 
and  not  by  abstract  reasoning  or  philosophizing. 

A.  V.  du  Pont,  the  elder  of  the  du  Pont  brothers  al- 
ready referred  to,  with  Mr.  Moxham,  myself  and  a  few 
smaller  stockholders  now  established  at  Johnstown  a  plant 
for  manufacturing  curves,  frogs  and  switches  out  of  the 
girder  rail  which  the  Cambria  people  were  making  for 
us. 

At  the  same  time  I  was  interested  in  many  other  enter- 
prises. Our  street  railway  operations  were  going  well  and 
making  money.  My  inventions  were  paying.  Some  Chi- 
cago bankers,  interested  in  street  railroads  in  their  own 
city,  had  bought  our  Indianapolis  railroad,  assuming  the 
bonded  indebtedness  and  giving  me  one  check  for  about 
eight  hundred  thousand  dollars,  nearly  half  of  which  came 
to  me  as  my  individual  profit,  the  rest  going  to  my  father 
and  the  other  stockholders.  This  had  enabled  me  to  pay 


32  MY  STORY 

all  my  debts  and  embark  in  new  enterprises  with  a  sur- 
plus. 

I  was  one  of  a  group  of  men  which  purchased  the  Sixth 
street  railroad  in  St.  Louis.  We  were  opposed  by  all  the 
other  street  railways  and  our  line  was  kept  out  of  the 
center  of  the  city  for  a  long  time.  Some  years  later  after 
the  introduction  of  electricity  in  operating  we  sold  this 
road  at  a  handsome  profit. 

Richmond,  Virginia,  was  the  first  city  to  operate  its 
cars  with  electricity  and  in  1889  A.  V.  du  Pont  and  I 
went  down  there  to  investigate  the  practicability  of  this 
kind  of  operation.  Firmly  convinced  that  we  should  find 
the  new  power  inadequate  when  it  came  to  taking  cars 
up  hill,  the  first  thing  we  saw  was  cars  climbing  Rich- 
mond's steep  streets  as  easily  as  they  glided  along  the 
level  ones.  Our  report  to  the  street  railway  companies 
in  which  we  were  interested  in  several  large  cities  was 
quite  different  than  we  had  expected  it  would  be. 

At  about  the  time  I  went  into  the  St.  Louis  enterprise 
I  purchased  a  street  railway  franchise  in  Brooklyn  which 
later  became  involved  in  litigation  and  was  tied  up  in 
the  courts  for  a  long  time.  Eventually  I  got  my  principal 
and  interest  back  but  no  profits.  Before  the  litigation 
I  had  sold  a  lot  of  bonds  in  this  enterprise  to  some  Louis- 
ville people.  When  the  court  proceedings  threatened  pro- 
tracted delay  I  bought  back  all  these  bonds  at  a  higher 
price  than  the  purchasers  had  paid  for  them.  I  was 
under  no  legal  obligation  to  do  this,  of  course;  and  my 
reasons  for  doing  it  were  purely  selfish.  First,  I  couldn't 
endure  the  thought  of  having  persons  who  had  invested 
because  of  their  faith  in  me  lose,  and  second,  it  was  better 
for  my  future  credit  to  retain  their  confidence.  Perhaps 


TOM   L.  JOHNSON    AT  THIRTY-TWO 

"Protected  now  by  special  grants  in  the  highway,   by  the  tariff  and  by  land   monopoly 
my  training  as  a  monopolist  had  gone  far." 


THE  TRAINING  OF  A  MONOPOLIST     33 

I  myself  thought  I  was  acting  generously,  so  frequently 
are  motives  inspired  by  business  interests  mistaken  for 
personal  virtues. 

Once  or  twice  in  my  life  I  have  been  forced  to  take  over 
the  management  of  a  street  railroad  that  didn't  pay,  but 
in  these  cases  I  had  no  hand  in  the  original  acquisition 
of  the  properties.  I  never  made  an  unfortunate  street 
railroad  investment. 

Our  contract  with  the  Cambria  people  proved  so  profita- 
ble that  we  presently  decided  to  build  our  own  rolling- 
mill.  Though  this  decision  cost  the  Cambria  an  excel- 
lent customer,  they  cooperated  with  us  in  every  way  in 
building  our  plant  which  was  situated  in  the  center  of  a 
large  level  tract  of  land  in  a  new  suburb  known  as  Mox- 
ham.  We  had  purchased  all  the  land  in  that  locality 
which  was  suitable  for  building  purposes,  and  our  hold- 
ings reached  quite  to  the  edge  of  the  great  perpendicular 
bluffs  which  enclose  the  valley.  We  placed  the  mill  with 
a  view  to  profiting  by  the  increased  land  values  which 
would  follow  the  growing  up  of  the  community  around 
it,  and  we  made  money  out  of  both. 

Protected  now  by  special  grants  in  the  highway,  by  the 
tariff,  by  patents  and  by  land  monopoly  my  training  as  a 
monopolist  had  gone  far.  No  wonder  I  liked  my  busi- 
ness. It  was  not  the  money  making  end  alone  that  ap- 
pealed to  me;  I  liked  the  whole  game,  but  the  fact  that 
I  was  getting  rich  and  seeing  my  associates  prosper  may 
have  been  my  greatest  stimulus. 


THE   LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT 

OUR  mill  was  completed  and  ready  for  occupancy  when 
the  Johnstown  flood  occurred,  May  31,  1889,  and  in  an 
hour  wrought  such  havoc  as  no  imagination  can  picture, 
havoc  which  must  be  seen  to  be  believed  possible.  The 
property  losses  of  our  firm  were  very  small  for  though 
our  old  plant  was  in  the  path  of  the  flood  and  was  swept 
away,  it  had  been  practically  abandoned,  mucri  of  the 
machinery  and  stock  having  been  removed  to  the  new 
mill. 

We  had  built  a  steam  railroad  which  ran  from  Mox- 
ham  into  Johnstown  and  for  some  time  had  been  trying 
to  get  possession  of  the  city's  street  railways  too.  It 
was  not  until  after  the  flood,  however,  and  in  consequence 
of  the  general  demoralization  of  that  business  along  with 
all  other  activities,  that  the  owners  were  willing  to  sell. 
Then  they  were  only  too  glad  to  get  rid  of  the  property, 
and  they  may  have  had  small  regard  for  the  business 
sagacity  of  anyone  who  would  buy  a  railroad  when  cars, 
shops  and  tracks  had  been  washed  away,  and  when  what 
was  left  of  the  latter  was  covered  by  a  seemingly  hopeless 
mass  of  debris. 

We  made  no  money  out  of  the  strap-hangers  or  other 
passengers  in  the  first  days  of  operating  in  Johnstown 
for  the  street  cars  like  our  steam  railroad  ran  free.  So 
with  the  groceries,  meat  markets  and  other  shops.  It 

34 


THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT     35 

wasn't  a  case  of  "  After  us  the  deluge,"  but  "  The  deluge 
after  us,"  and  "  us  "  was  everybody  who  had  anything 
the  community  could  use.  There  wasn't  much  talk  about 
the  sacred  rights  of  property  around  Johnstown  just  then 
as  I  remember  it. 

When  the  first  shock  of  the  disaster  was  over  the  dazed 
people  realized  that  there  was  no  responsible  head  to  which 
they  could  look  for  relief,  guidance  or  protection,  for  that 
little  city  was  made  up  of  eleven  boroughs,  each  with  its 
own  set  of  councilmen,  its  burgess  and  its  miniature  city 
government.  In  times  of  comparative  peace  there  was 
no  getting  together  of  these  powers  because  of  petty  jeal- 
ousies, continual  bickerings  and  contested  rights.  The 
hopelessness  of  expecting  anything  from  this  quarter  now 
was  perfectly  apparent  to  all.  So  a  public  mass  meeting 
was  called,  at  which  it  was  decided  to  elect  a  Dictator  — 
one  in  whom  all  powers,  legislative  and  executive,  should 
be  vested.  The  choice  fell  upon  Mr.  Moxham,  and  a 
most  fortunate  choice  it  was,  for  so  wisely  did  he  admin- 
ister the  affairs  of  that  afflicted  community  that  his  au- 
thority was  never  once  questioned. 

Think  of  being  called  upon  to  feed,  clothe  and  house  a 
destitute  and  panic  stricken  population  of  thousands,  to 
search  out  and  care  for  the  bodies  of  unnumbered  dead,  to 
clear  away  the  wreckage  of  a  razed  city,  and  withal  to 
maintain  order,  insure  public  safety  and  provide  against 
further  calamity.  This  was  the  task  which  faced  Johns- 
town's elected  dictator,  himself  a  British  subject,  not  an 
American  citizen.  Here  was  indeed  "  work  that  called 
for  a  man,"  and  I  shall  never  cease  to  be  proud  of  the 
splendid  way  in  which  Mr.  Moxham  responded  to  that 
call. 


36  MY  STORY 

The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  assign  a  duty  to  every  man 
available  for  work  of  any  kind. 

It  was  but  natural  that  he  should  look  to  the  leading 
citizens,  the  men  who  stood  high  in  business  circles,  those 
who  were  prominent  in  the  churches  and  in  the  social  life 
of  the  community  for  the  most  intelligent  and  spontaneous 
cooperation ;  but  these  failed  so  utterly  to  meet  the  emer- 
gency that  their  defection  was  a  matter  of  general  com- 
ment. They  ran  away  from  responsibility. 

But  if  the  calamity  brought  out  the  weakest  and  worst 
elements  of  character  in  this  class,  it  had  quite  the  oppo- 
site effect  on  those  in  the  humbler  walks  of  life.  The 
men  who  were  accustomed  to  work  with  their  hands  were 
not  found  wanting.  All  that  was  big  and  brave  and 
strong  and  good  in  their  characters  came  uppermost.  And 
in  that  crisis  when  native  worth  —  not  artificial  attributes 
—  was  the  test  of  patriotism,  or  citizenship,  or  brother- 
hood, or  whatever  name  you  choose  to  call  it  by,  the  posi- 
tions of  the  two  classes  of  society  in  Johnstown  were  re- 
served. 

One  man  who  stood  out  like  a  giant  was  Bill  Jones, 
known  to  the  world  because  of  his  association  with  the 
early  development  of  Andrew  Carnegie's  enterprises,  but 
deserving  to  be  known  for  his  own  sterling  worth.  He 
had  been  connected  with  the  Cambria  Iron  Company  at 
one  time  and  directly  after  the  flood  he  came  on  from 
Pittsburgh  with  a  great  body  of  men,  extensive  camp  equip- 
ment and  tools  of  various  kinds  and  went  to  work.  In  his 
rough  and  ready  way  he  got  right  at  the  essential  things 
and  brought  the  kind  of  relief  that  money  couldn't  buy. 

One  day  when  he  and  I  were  going  through  the  de- 
vastated district  on  horseback,  a  man  so  begrimed  with 


THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT     37 

dirt  as  to  be  unrecognizable  hailed  him  with  a  hearty, 
"  Hello,  Bill !  "  Jones  dismounted  to  exchange  greetings 
with  his  unknown  friend  and  said,  "  You'll  have  to  tell  me 
who  you  are."  The  man  answered, 

"  I'm  Pat  Lavell,"  and  then  they  embraced  like  two 
brothers. 

There  was  a  pause,  for  Bill  Jones  was  hesitating  before 
putting  that  hardest  of  all  questions :  "  How  did  it  go 
with  you?  " — the  question  so  apt  to  bring  a  story  of  un- 
thinkable disaster  in  reply. 

"  Lost  everything,"  answered  Lavell,  "  my  home,  my 
savings, —  everything;  but,"  and  in  spite  of  the  grime  his 
face  lighted  up  with  the  brightest  look  I  ever  saw,  "  I'm 
the  happiest  man  in  Johnstown,  for  my  family's  all  right." 

They  say  at  some  of  the  fine  London  hotels  that  Bill 
Jones  didn't  cut  much  of  a  figure  when  he  visited  the 
English  metropolis.  When  I  hear  this  I  like  to  call  up  in 
my  mind  the  image  of  Bill  at  Johnstown,  and  I  wish  I 
could  make  everybody  else  see  the  picture  of  that  man  tri- 
umphant. I  cherish  the  memory  of  my  acquaintance  with 
Bill  Jones  as  one  of  the  great  privileges  of  my  life. 

Somehow  the  value  and  importance  of  "  leading  citi- 
zens "  to  a  community  has  never  impressed  me  much  since 
then. 

I  reached  Johnstown  from  Cleveland  the  day  after  the 
flood,  arriving  just  a  few  hours  after  Mr.  du  Pont,  who 
had  come  on  from  Cincinnati,  where  he  happened  to  be 
when  the  news  of  the  disaster  reached  him.  We  were 
both  immensely  relieved  to  find  our  partner,  Mr.  Moxham, 
all  right.  We  three  men  were  all  smokers,  but  it  had  not 
occurred  to  Mr.  du  Pont  or  to  me  to  bring  an  extra  large 
supply  of  cigars,  for  even  if  we  had  been  thinking  of  our 


3  8  MY  STORY 

own  comfort,  which  we  were  not,  we  did  not  know  that  it 
was  impossible  to  get  tobacco  in  Johnstown,  nor  had  we 
anticipated  the  difficulties  in  getting  supplies  of  any  kind 
from  Pittsburgh  or  any  other  place  in  the  outside  world. 

Mr.  Moxham  and  I  got  together  early  and  took  ac- 
count of  stock  and  hit  upon  a  plan  which  would  prevent 
the  tobacco  famine  from  affecting  Mr.  du  Pont  for  sev- 
eral days  at  least.  We  planned  that  when  we  got  to- 
gether each  morning,  preparatory  to  separating  and  going 
about  our  respective  work  for  the  day,  that  one  of  us 
would  say,  "  Well,  how  many  cigars  have  we  among 
us?"  Mr.  Moxham  and  I  would  produce  ours,  being 
careful  not  to  let  Mr.  du  Pont  know  that  we  had  no  large 
reserve  supply  in  our  rooms;  he  would  of  course  produce 
his  and  then  we  would  divide  them  equally  among  us. 
Arthur  and  I  would  put  ours  into  our  pockets,  remarking 
casually  that  we  didn't  care  to  smoke  then  but  would  do  so 
later.  The  plan  worked  all  right.  Mr.  du  Pont,  all  un- 
suspecting, smoked  his  cigars  and  never  knew  that  we  car- 
ried ours  around  in  our  pockets  and  added  them  to  the 
common  store  the  next  morning.  It  was  the  greatest 
source  of  comfort  to  both  of  us  that  our  elder  partner  did 
not  have  to  be  deprived  of  his  cigars,  but  we  never  dared 
tell  him  of  the  deception  we  practiced  upon  him,  for  while 
we  considered  it  a  good  joke  and  enjoyed  it  hugely  we 
knew  he  wouldn't  have  forgiven  it. 

The  work  delegated  to  me  was  the  removal  of  the 
bodies  of  the  victims  of  the  disaster.  No  words  can  de- 
scribe the  horror  and  reluctance  with  which  I  approached 
this  grewsome  task.  The  sight  of  the  first  few  bodies  re- 
covered moved  me  to  tears.  But  before  we  had  gone  far 
I  had  lost  all  feeling  of  shrinking  or  even  of  sadness  and 


THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT    39 

went  about  it  in  a  seemingly  heartless  manner.  It  was 
the  stress  of  the  cruel  situation,  the  absolute  necessity  for 
getting  the  awful  work  done  which  made  this  possible. 

The  natural  buoyancy  of  my  nature  soon  asserted  itself 
and  as  there  was  nothing  else  out  of  which  any  fun  could 
be  had,  I  "  made  fun  "  of  the  free  operation  of  our  street 
cars,  which  continued  for  some  sixty  or  ninety  days.  I 
told  my  partners  that  this  method  of  operating  was  the 
most  perfect  device  I  ever  had  encountered  for  getting  rid 
of  the  evils  arising  from  the  collection  of  fares.  I  in- 
sisted that  it  could  not  be  improved  upon ;  that  it  did  away 
with  all  possibility  of  dishonesty  or  carelessness  on  the 
part  of  the  conductors  and  the  general  public;  in  fact,  that 
it  was  a  cure-all.  They  retorted  that  they  preferred  the 
disease  even  in  its  most  virulent  form  to  so  drastic  a 
remedy. 

Whether  my  hope  of  some  day  seeing  the  people  riding 
on  free  street  cars  had  its  birth  before  this  time  or  was 
due  to  the  Johnstown  object  lesson  I  cannot  say.  But  cer- 
tain it  is  that  that  experience  convinced  me  that  free  cars 
were  not  only  possible  but  practicable.  When  I  seriously 
advocated  them  some  years  later  the  objection  I  met  often- 
est  was  that  people  would  spend  all  their  time  riding. 
Even  if  I  had  not  been  able  to  refute  this  by  citing  Johns- 
town where  nothing  of  the  kind  happened,  I  should  still 
have  answered  that  people  would  no  more  ride  aimlessly 
hour  after  hour  on  free  cars  than  they  now  ride  aimlessly 
on  free  elevators. 

Have  you  ever  really  thought  what  free  cars  would 
mean? 

Wouldn't  the  greatest  advantage  be  the  removal  of 
franchises  which  are  to-day  the  prizes  that  Big  Business 


40  MY  STORY 

strives  for,  bribes  for,  and  even  corrupts  whole  communi- 
ties to  acquire? 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  anybody  trying  to  get  a  fire  de- 
partment franchise? 

How  would  free  car  service  be  paid  for?  How  is  free 
elevator  service  paid  for?  The  owners  of  buildings  pro- 
vide it  without  pay?  Oh,  no,  they  don't.  In  apartment 
houses  the  tenants  pay  for  elevator  service  in  their  rent. 
And  in  office  buildings  the  tenants  seem  to  do  the  same 
thing,  but  they  don't  really.  You  and  I  pay  for  the  ele- 
vator service.  It  is  charged  to  us  in  the  bills  rendered  by 
our  doctors,  our  lawyers,  our  plumbers,  our  dressmakers, 
our  tailors,  our  milliners,  our  contractors,  albeit  it  isn't 
separately  itemized. 

Well,  wouldn't  you  rather  pay  it  that  way  than  to  fish 
in  your  pocket  for  a  nickel  or  three  cents  or  a  penny  every 
time  you  enter  an  elevator?  I  would. 

Free  street  car  rides  would  be  paid  for  in  the  same 
way, —  not  by  some  public  benefactor,  some  mysterious 
agency  which  gives  something  for  nothing  —  but  by  the 
car  riders  themselves.  And  they  would  find  the  item  in 
their  rent  receipts. 

To  meet  the  problem  of  a  community  with  no  money 
was  not  easy,  but  we  were  presently  confronted  with  the 
graver  problem  of  a  community  with  too  much  money. 
The  greatly  exaggerated  reports  of  the  loss  of  property 
and  of  human  lives,  the  first  press  dispatches  placing  the 
number  of  the  latter  at  ten  thousand,  brought  a  cor- 
respondingly great  volume  of  relief. 

That  curious  inconsistency  which  makes  human  nature 
quite  complacent  in  contemplating  the  annual  slaughter  of 
infants  in  our  great  cities,  the  physical,  mental  and  moral 


crimes  involved  in  the  employment  of  little  children  in  in- 
dustry, the  menace  to  the  race  in  over-working  and  under- 
paying women,  and  the  terrible  social  consequences  of 
forced  unemployment  of  great  numbers  of  men,  but  which 
moves  it  to  frantic  expressions  of  sympathy  by  the  news 
of  an  earthquake,  a  fire  or  a  kidnapping,  caused  the  Amer- 
ican people  to  empty  their  purses  and  their  children's  sav- 
ings banks  for  the  benefit  of  Johnstown. 

When  it  was  known  that  three  millions  of  dollars  had 
been  sent  in,  the  town  quit  work  and  it  seemed  as  if  every 
inhabitant  was  bent  upon  getting  a  share  of  the  cash. 

The  hungry  were  fed,  the  naked  clothed,  the  homeless 
housed,  widows  pensioned;  charitable  acts,  every  one,  and 
made  possible  by  a  generous  charity  fund.  But  these  ex- 
penditures didn't  exhaust  it.  They  hardly  made  an  im- 
pression on  it. 

Roads  were  repaired,  bridges  rebuilt,  the  river  widened, 
cemeteries  laid  out,  monuments  erected,  hospitals  estab- 
lished ;  public  work  every  bit  of  it  with  no  legitimate  claim 
on  a  charity  fund.  But  still  there  was  money  left  I 

Three  million  dollars  doesn't  sound  like  much  when  you 
say  it,  so  familiar  have  we  become  with  figures  which  rep- 
resent the  fortunes  of  the  one  hundred  men  whom  Senator 
LaFollette  named  by  name  for  the  enlightenment  of  his 
professedly  skeptical  colleagues,  but  when  you  take  three 
million  dollars  and  go  out  to  buy  things  with  it,  real  ma- 
terial things,  it  turns  out  to  be  a  very  great  deal  of  money. 

When  we  had  managed  to  use  perhaps  a  million  of  the 
fund  a  meeting  was  called  to  decide  what  should  be  done 
with  the  rest  of  it.  The  situation  was  extremely  serious. 
The  flood  of  gold  threatened  as  great  disaster,  though  of 
a  different  nature,  as  the  flood  of  water  had  caused.  The 


42  MY  STORY 

residents  couldn't  be  induced  to  work  and  workmen  had 
to  be  brought  in  from  the  outside,  thus  further  taxing  the 
capacity  of  the  already  overcrowded  houses. 

The  Governor  of  the  State,  James  A.  Beaver,  fright- 
ened us  by  counseling  delay  and  investigation  of  individual 
cases.  Others  urged  indemnification  for  losses.  This 
was  clearly  as  improper  a  use  for  a  charity  fund,  a  fund 
given  to  relieve  actual  suffering  and  immediate  distress,  as 
the  public  work  had  been. 

Surely  no  body  of  men  assembled  in  conference  was 
ever  faced  by  a  more  unique  situation.  At  this  meeting  I 
shocked  everybody  by  advising  that  the  money  be  con- 
verted into  silver  dollars,  since  it  could  not  be  returned  to 
the  donors,  loaded  into  wagons,  hauled  out  and  dumped 
into  the  streets  where  the  people  might  literally  scramble 
for  it.  It  was  now  absolutely  certain  that  nothing  could 
be  done  until  we  got  rid  of  it,  and  this  plan  had  the  merit 
of  speed  to  recommend  it  anyhow,  and  I  wasn't  at  all  sure 
that  it  wouldn't  result  in  about  as  full  a  measure  of  justice 
as  any  plan  that  could  be  devised  after  protracted  investi- 
gation. Mr.  Moxham  and  I  were  for  any  plan  that  was 
quick. 

In  the  end  the  committee  reimbursed  losers,  giving  each 
a  certain  percentage  of  estimated  losses.  Before  the  peo- 
ple were  completely  demoralized  the  money  was  all  given 
away  or  appropriated,  and  then  the  town  went  to  work, 
went  back  to  the  sober  pursuit  of  every-day  affairs,  and 
life  assumed  a  normal  aspect  once  more. 

Lest  some  reader  of  the  foregoing  paragraphs  think  I 
condemn  the  motives  which  prompt  charity  let  me  dis- 
claim that!  It  is  not  generous  impulses,  not  charity  itself, 
to  which  I  object.  What  I  do  deplore  is  the  short-sight- 


THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT    43 

edness  which  keeps  us  forever  tinkering  at  a  defective 
spigot  when  the  bung-hole  is  wide  open.  If  we  were  wise 
enough  to  seek  and  find  the  causes  that  call  for  charity 
there  would  be  some  hope  for  us. 

In  Johnstown  it  was  a  defective  dam  used  for  the  recre- 
ation of  the  well-to-do.  A  great  reservoir  of  water  in 
which  fish  were  kept  to  be  fished  for  by  the  privileged 
members  of  the  South  Fork  Hunting  and  Fishing  Club  of 
Pittsburgh.  This  property,  comprising  some  five  hundred 
acres,  had  been  acquired  by  purchase.  Originally  a  part 
of  the  State  canal  system  it  had  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  when  the  latter  pur- 
chased the  canal  in  1857—58,  and  became  private  property 
in  1875  when  Congressman  John  Reilly  bought  it.  He 
later  offered  it  for  sale  at  two  thousand  dollars,  when  it 
was  purchased  by  the  originator  of  the  Club  above  men- 
tioned and  two  other  Pittsburgh  gentlemen. 

It  was  suspected  that  the  dam  wasn't  safe.  I  myself 
had  gone  to  look  at  it  one  day  the  summer  before  it  broke 
and  had  speculated  on  what  might  happen  to  us  in  the 
little  city  eight  miles  down  the  valley  in  case  the  dam 
should  give  way.  The  innocent  cause  of  the  catastrophe 
when  at  last  it  did  come  was  some  leaves  which  clogged 
the  spill-way.  Citizens  living  in  the  vicinity  wanted  to 
remove  the  wire  grating  which  held  the  leaves  back  and 
caused  the  water  to  go  over  the  breast  of  the  dam,  but 
were  refused  permission  to  do  so,  refused,  forsooth,  be- 
cause some  of  the  privately-owned  fishes  swimming  around 
in  the  privately-controlled  pool  might  escape  —  might  be 
swept  over  the  confines  of  their  aristocratic  dwelling  and 
eventually  be  caught  with  a  bent  pin  attached  to  a  cane 
pole,  instead  of  being  hauled  out  of  the  sacred  waters,  in 


44  MY  STORY 

which  they  had  been  spawned,  by  that  work  of  art  known 
as  a  high  class  rod  and  reel  equipped  with  a  silk  line  and  a 
many-hued  artificial  fly. 

Yes,  the  Johnstown  flood  was  caused  by  Special  Privi- 
lege, and  it  is  not  less  true  that  Special  Privilege  makes 
charity  apparently  necessary  than  it  is  that  "  crime  and 
punishment  grow  on  one  stem !  "  It  is  cupidity  which 
creates  unjust  social  conditions  sometimes  for  mere  pleas- 
ure —  as  in  this  case  —  but  generally  for  profit.  The 
need  of  charity  is  almost  always  the  result  of  the  evils  pro- 
duced by  man's  greed. 

What  did  charity  do  for  Johnstown?  It  was  power- 
less to  restore  children  to  parents,  to  reunite  families,  to 
mitigate  mourning,  to  heal  broken  hearts,  to  bring  back 
lost  lives.  It  had  to  be  diverted  to  uses  for  which  it  was  not 
intended.  As  charity  it  had  to  be  eliminated,  as  we  have 
seen,  before  the  people  could  save  themselves. 

Materially  Johnstown  was  benefited  by  the  flood,  just  as 
so  many  other  communities  have  been  by  similar  catastro- 
phes. And  material  prosperity  seems  so  important  that 
we  have  acquired  a  habit  of  saying,  "  Oh,  the  fire  was  a 
good  thing  for  Chicago  or  London,"  "  The  flood  was  a 
good  thing  for  Johnstown,"  etc.,  etc.  But  is  it  not  true 
that  when  human  lives  are  lost  the  price  paid  for  material 
benefits  is  one  that  can't  be  counted?  We  must  leave  this 
out  of  the  reckoning  then  when  we  say  that  the  flood  was  a 
good  thing  for  Johnstown. 

The  town  went  forward  as  one  united  people  now  no 
longer  divided  by  separate  borough  governments,  and  on 
the  wreckage  of  the  former  city  built  up  a  great  manu- 
facturing community  which  to-day  numbers  more  than 
fifty  thousand  souls. 


THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT    45 

It  was  a  marvelous  thing  to  witness  such  utter  destruc- 
tion and  in  so  short  a  time  such  complete  reconstruction, 
and  the  spectacle  made  a  profound  impression  upon  me. 
When  I  became  mayor  of  Cleveland  twelve  years  later  I 
was  faced  by  problems  of  a  different  character,  but  prob- 
lems due  to  the  same  root  cause  from  which  Johnstown's 
difficulties  came.  And  many,  many  times  when  these 
problems  seemed  hopelessly  entangled  I  reasoned  with 
myself  that  there  must  be  a  way  out,  since  in  Johnstown 
under  apparently  greater  disadvantages  we  had  always 
found  a  way. 

In  Cleveland  we  made  progress  by  slow  and  painful  de- 
grees. No  completed  picture  presented  itself  here  as  in 
Johnstown,  but,  leaving  out  the  element  of  time,  the  cases 
were,  to  my  mind,  so  similar  as  almost  to  parallel  each 
other. 

The  problems  which  had  to  be  met  in  Johnstown  and 
which  are  being  met  in  Cleveland  have  their  counterparts 
in  all  other  communities,  and  sooner  or  later  will  present 
themselves  for  solution.  Just  as  surely  as  we  meet  these 
problems  with  remedial  measures  only,  with  charitable  acts 
and  time-serving  expedients, —  just  so  surely  will  great 
catastrophes  in  some  form  or  other  overtake  us. 

If  we  will  seek  out  and  remove  the  social  wrong  which 
is  at  the  bottom  of  every  social  problem,  the  problem  will 
vanish.  Nothing  could  be  simpler.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  cause  is  not  eradicated  the  problem  will  persist, 
multiply  itself  and  all  the  evils  that  go  with  it,  until  one 
day  that  particular  catastrophe  which  goes  under  the 
dreadful  name  —  revolution  —  occurs. 

It  was  at  our  Johnstown  plant  during  the  panic  of  the 
early  nineties  that  we  hit  upon  a  device  for  supplying  the 


46  MY  STORY 

shortage  of  currency  which  has  since  been  so  widely  used  in 
times  of  similar  stress.  There  were  plenty  of  orders  for 
our  product  —  street  railroad  rails  —  but  the  buyers 
couldn't  pay  cash.  We  called  our  employes  together  and 
explained  the  situation  to  them.  We  told  them  we  were 
unable  to  command  enough  currency  to  pay  the  full  amount 
of  their  wages,  but  that  if  they  were  willing  to  accept  a 
small  percentage  in  cash  and  the  remainder  in  certificates 
that  we  should  be  able  to  continue  to  operate  the  mill;  if 
they  could  not  agree  to  such  an  arrangement  we  should 
have  to  shut  down. 

The  law  specifically  prohibited  the  payment  of  wages 
in  anything  but  money  —  a  provision  intended  to  protect 
working  men  from  exploitation  by  "  the  company  store," 
an  institution  we  never  had  in  connection  with  any  of  our 
industries.  To  avoid  violating  the  law  therefore  we 
should  have  to  hand  over  to  each  employe  his  full  pay  in 
currency  with  the  understanding  that  he  was  to  present 
himself  immediately  at  another  window  in  the  office  and 
buy  an  agreed  upon  percentage  of  certificates. 

We  were  selling  rails  for  such  cash  payments  as  we 
could  get  and  accepting  the  purchasers'  bonds  for  the  re- 
mainder. We  were  proposing  to  do  for  our  men  just 
what  our  customers  were  doing  for  us.  The  bonds  were 
to  be  held  by  a  joint  committee  of  company  representa- 
tives and  working  men  and  against  these  bonds  the  certifi- 
cates were  issued.  Our  employes  decided  to  accept  our 
proposition,  and  our  cooperative  enterprise,  for  that  is 
what  it  was,  proved  entirely  satisfactory.  The  certifi- 
cates passed  at  nearly  par  and  we  experienced  no  serious 
legal  embarrassment,  nor  was  there  any  misunderstand- 
ing of  our  motives. 


THE  LESSONS  JOHNSTOWN  TAUGHT     47 

In  a  way  these  certificates  corresponded  to  clearing 
house  certificates,  at  that  time  forbidden  by  law,  but  since 
partially  legalized  —  which  is  to  say  that  certain  national 
banks  now  have  legal  authority  to  issue  clearing  house 
certificates.  It's  curious  that  what  is  right  and  lawful  for 
some  banks  is  wrong  and  unlawful  for  others.  But  neces- 
sity knows  a  law  that  isn't  written  on  statute  books  and 
will  continue  to  force  the  use  of  clearing  house  certificates 
or  similar  expedients  from  time  to  time  until  we  are  wise 
enough  to  arrange  our  money-issuing  machinery  with  a 
view  to  taking  care  of  business  in  hard  times  as  well  as  in 
good  times.* 

*  Appendix. 


VI 

HENRY  GEORGE,  THE  MAN  AND  HIS  BOOKS 

MY  interest  in  Privilege,  as  this  record  has  shown,  was 
all  on  the  privileged  side.  The  unwisdom  of  the  public 
in  making  grants  of  the  highway,  or  the  question  of  mu- 
nicipal ownership  would  have  been  as  incomprehensible  to 
me  as  the  Greek  alphabet.  I  had  acquired  my  various 
special  privileges  by  perfectly  legitimate  methods  accord- 
ing to  my  own  standards.  Most  of  my  street  railway 
operations  were  based  upon  franchises  already  in  existence 
which  I  had  purchased  from  the  owners.  Very  few  of 
my  grants  had  come  through  city  ordinances  passed  for 
my  benefit.  I  had  had  comparatively  little  contact  with 
politics  in  any  way.  I  had  sometimes  contributed  to  the 
campaign  funds  of  both  political  parties  and  was  there- 
fore indifferent  as  to  which  side  won.  I  was  absolutely 
interested  in  business,  in  the  great  business  opportunities 
before  me,  in  the  sure  prospect  of  continuing  to  make 
money, —  and  I  was  looking  for  a  conductor  all  the  time. 
I  knew  now  that  there  were  many  guises  in  which  he  might 
appear,  and  my  training  had  fitted  me  to  recognize  him  in 
almost  any  of  them. 

When  I  was  securely  established  as  a  business  man,  and 
at  the  very  height  of  my  money-making  career  the  incident 
which  was  to  change  my  whole  outlook  on  the  universe  oc- 
curred. It  came  about  through  the  intervention  of  a  con- 
ductor too  —  but  not  the  kind  I  was  looking  for  —  just 

48 


HENRY  GEORGE  49 

a  prosaic  railroad  train  conductor  running  between  Cleve- 
land and  Indianapolis. 

I  still  owned  my  Indianapolis  interests  and  was  travel- 
ing between  that  city  and  Cleveland  frequently.  When 
on  one  of  these  trips  a  train  boy  offered  me  a  book  called 
Social  Problems.  The  title  led  me  to  think  it  dealt  with 
the  social  evil,  and  I  said  as  much,  adding  that  the  subject 
didn't  appeal  to  me  at  all.  Overhearing  my  remarks,  the 
conductor  urged  me  to  buy  the  book,  saying  that  he  was 
sure  it  would  interest  me,  and  that  if  it  didn't  he  would 
refund  the  half  dollar  I  invested  in  it.  So  I  bought  it, 
and  I  read  it  almost  without  stopping.  Then  I  hastened 
to  get  all  the  other  books  which  Henry  George  had  writ- 
ten up  to  that  time.  I  read  Progress  and  Poverty  next. 
It  sounded  true  —  all  of  it.  I  didn't  want  to  believe  it 
though,  so  I  took  it  to  my  lawyer  in  Cleveland,  L.  A.  Rus- 
sell, and  said  to  him : 

"  You  made  a  free  trader  of  me ;  now  I  want  you  to 
read  this  book  and  point  out  its  errors  to  me  and  save  me 
from  becoming  an  advocate  of  the  system  of  taxation  it 
describes." 

The  next  time  I  went  to  Johnstown  I  talked  with  Mr. 
Moxham  about  it.  He  said  he  would  read  it.  For 
months  it  was  the  chief  subject  of  conversation  between 
these  two  men  and  myself.  Mr.  Moxham  read  it  once, 
carefully  marking  all  the  places  where,  in  his  opinion,  the 
author  had  departed  from  logic  and  indulged  in  sophistry. 
He  wasn't  willing  to  talk  much  about  it,  however,  saying 
he  wanted  time  to  think  it  over  and  read  it  once  more  be- 
fore he  discussed  it  with  anybody.  By  and  by  he  said 
to  me, 

"  I've  read  Progress  and  Poverty  again  and  I  have  had 


50  MY  STORY 

to  erase  a  good  many  of  my  marks,  but  I  don't  want  to 
talk  about  it  yet." 

And  then  in  due  course  of  time  there  came  a  day  when 
he  said, 

"  Tom,  I've  read  that  book  for  the  third  time  and  I 
have  rubbed  out  every  damn  mark." 

Long  before  this  I  had  become  convinced  that  Mr. 
George  had  found  a  great  truth  and  a  practical  solution  for 
the  most  vexing  of  social  problems,  but  Mr.  Russell  wasn't 
yet  ready  to  admit  it.  Some  time  later  he  and  Mr.  Mox- 
ham  and  I  were  obliged  to  go  to  New  York  together  on 
business,  and  we  spent  our  evenings  in  my  room  at  the 
hotel  smoking  and  discussing  Progress  and  Poverty.  Mr. 
Russell's  avowed  intention  was  "  to  demolish  this  will-o'- 
the-wisp."  Every  time  he  stated  an  objection  either  Mr. 
Moxham  or  I  would  hold  him  up  to  explain  exactly  what 
he  meant  by  such  terms  as  land,  labor,  capital,  wealth, 
etc.  As  fast  as  he  correctly  defined  their  meanings  his 
objections  vanished  one  by  one,  and  that  trip  worked  his 
complete  conversion  and  was  brought  about  by  his  own 
reasoning,  and  not  by  our  arguments.  The  effect  of  all 
of  this  upon  me  was  to  make  every  chapter  of  that  book 
almost  as  familiar  to  me  as  one  of  my  own  mechanical  in- 
ventions. 

It  was  in  1883  that  I  became  interested  in  Mr.  George's 
teachings  —  the  year  my  family  took  up  their  residence 
in  Cleveland,  though  previous  to  this  time  my  wife  and 
our  two  children,  a  son  and  a  daughter,  both  of  whom 
were  born  in  Indianapolis,  had  spent  some  time  with  me 
at  the  Weddell  House,  where  I  lived  when  I  was  in  the 
city. 


HENRY  GEORGE  51 

I  continued  in  my  business  with  as  much  zest  as  ever, 
but  my  point  of  view  was  no  longer  that  of  a  man  whose 
chief  object  in  life  is  to  get  rich.  I  wanted  to  know  more 
about  Mr.  George's  doctrines.  I  wanted  to  ask  him  ques- 
tions, for  I  had  not  outgrown  the  why,  what  and  where- 
fore habit  of  my  childish  days. 

My  business  took  me  often  to  New  York  and  on  one 
of  those  trips  in  1885  I  went  to  call  upon  Mr.  George  at 
his  home  in  Brooklyn.  I  was  much  affected  by  that  visit. 
I  had  come  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the 
truth  that  he  was  promulgating  by  the  strenuous,  intel- 
lectual processes  which  have  been  described,  but  the  great- 
ness of  the  man  himself  was  something  I  felt  when  I  came 
into  his  presence. 

Before  I  was  really  aware  of  it  I  had  told  him  the  story 
of  my  life,  and  I  wound  up  by  saying: 

"  I  can't  write  and  I  can't  speak,  but  I  can  make  money. 
Can  a  man  help  who  can  just  make  money?  " 

He  assured  me  that  money  could  be  used  in  many  help- 
ful ways  to  promote  the  cause,  but  said  that  I  couldn't  tell 
whether  I  could  speak  or  write  until  I  had  tried;  that  it 
was  quite  probable  that  the  same  qualities  which  had  made 
me  successful  in  business  would  make  me  successful  in  a 
broader  field.  He  evidently  preferred  to  talk  about  these 
possibilities  to  dwelling  on  my  talent  for  money-making. 
He  suggested  that  I  go  into  politics.  This  seemed  quite 
without  the  range  of  the  possible  to  me,  and  I  put  it  aside, 
but  said  that  I  would  go  ahead  and  make  money  and  de- 
vote the  profits  largely  to  helping  spread  his  doctrines  if 
he  would  let  me. 

One  of  the  first  things  I  did,  and  it  makes  me  smile  to 


52  MY  STORY 

recall  it,  was  to  purchase  several  hundred  copies  of  Mr. 
George's  new  book,  Protection  or  Free  Trade,  and  send 
one  to  every  minister  and  lawyer  in  Cleveland. 

Why  do  converts  to  social  ideals  always  select  these  most 
unlikely  of  all  professions  in  the  world  as  objects  for  con- 
version in  their  campaigns  in  behalf  of  new  ideas? 

I  had  not  yet  discovered  that  it  is  "  the  unlearned  who 
are  ever  the  first  to  seize  and  comprehend  through  the 
heart's  logic  the  newest  and  most  daring  truths." 

That  first  meeting  with  Mr.  George  was  the  beginning 
of  a  friendship  which  grew  stronger  with  each  passing 
day  and  which,  it  seemed  to  me,  had  reached  the  full 
flower  of  perfection  when  I  stood  at  his  bedside  in  the 
Union  Square  Hotel  in  New  York  City  the  night  of  Oc- 
tober 28,  1897,  and  saw  his  tired  eyes  close  in  their  last 
sleep. 

Mr.  George  was  about  forty-six  years  old,  I  thirty-one, 
when  we  met  and  from  the  very  first  our  relations  were 
those  of  teacher  and  pupil. 

My  first  participation  in  any  organized  activity  was  to 
attend  a  meeting  of  a  voluntary  committee  called  at  the 
home  of  Dr.  Henna  in  New  York  in  August,  1886,  to 
consider  how  our  question  could  be  made  a  political  one. 
Among  that  little  group  besides  Mr.  George  and  Dr. 
Henna,  were  Father  McGlynn,  William  McCabe,  Louis 
F.  Post  and  Daniel  DeLeon.  A  short  time  afterwards  a 
second  meeting  was  held  at  Father  McGlynn's  rectory, 
but  before  we  had  formulated  any  specific  plans  Mr. 
George  was  called  upon  to  become  the  candidate  of  the 
labor  unions  of  New  York  for  mayor,  and  so  without  our 
volition  our  object  was  accomplished.  I  was  active  in 
this  campaign  as  also  in  the  state  campaign  the  following 


HENRY  GEORGE  53 

year,  when,  against  his  judgment,  Mr.  George  was  put 
forward  as  the  United  Labor  Party  candidate  for  secretary 
of  State. 

Mr.  George  persisted  in  his  belief  that  my  greatest 
service  to  the  cause  lay  in  the  political  field,  and  every  time 
I  urged  my  inability  to  speak  as  a  reason  against  this,  he 
answered  that  I  couldn't  tell  because  I  had  not  tried. 

And  so  one  night  early  in  the  year  1888  I  tried,  the  oc- 
casion being  a  mass  meeting  in  Cooper  Union.  Of  this 
attempt  Louis  F.  Post  generously  wrote  some  years  later, 
"  He  spoke  for  possibly  five  minutes,  timidly  and  crudely 
but  with  evident  sincerity,  and  probably  could  not  have 
spoken  ten  minutes  more  had  his  life  been  the  forfeit,"  but 
his  private  assurance  to  me  was  that  it  was  without  excep- 
tion the  worst  speech  he  had  ever  heard  in  all  his  days. 
I  am  sure  he  has  never  heard  anything  to  match  it  since. 
I  know  I  never  have. 

But  this  unpromising  beginning  didn't  discourage  Mr. 
George  and  it  made  the  next  trial  a  little  easier  for  me ;  and 
by  and  by  I  was  speaking  with  him  at  various  public  meet- 
ings. I  recall  one  especially  large  and  successful  one  in 
Philadelphia. 

Some  five  or  six  years  later,  perhaps,  in  a  great  meeting 
in  Chickering  Hall,  New  York,  my  part  on  the  programme 
was  to  answer  any  questions  which  might  be  put  by  the 
audience.  This  was  usually  done  by  Mr.  George,  and 
though  I  had  tried  my  hand  at  it  several  times  before  this 
was  the  first  time  I  had  attempted  it  when  Mr.  George  was 
present.  When  the  meeting  was  over  we  left  the  hall 
together  and  walked  some  blocks  before  a  word  was 
spoken.  I  had  gotten  on  very  well  in  my  own  estimation, 
but  Mr.  George's  continued  silence  was  raising  doubts  in 


54  MY  STORY 

my  mind.  When  he  did  speak,  he  laid  his  hand  on  my 
arm  and  said, 

"  I  am  ready  to  go  now.  There  is  someone  else  to  an- 
swer the  questions." 

With  Mr.  George  and  Thomas  G.  Shearman  of  New 
York,  I  went  before  the  Ohio  legislature  and  advocated 
a  change  in  the  tax  laws. 

In  the  winter  of  1895-96  a  newspaper  called  the  Re- 
corder was  started  in  Cleveland.  At  Mr.  George's  sug- 
gestion Louis  F.  Post,  then  of  New  York,  came  to  Cleve- 
land and  went  onto  the  paper  as  an  editorial  writer.  Hop- 
ing that  the  Recorder  might  prove  a  truly  democratic 
organ  and  thinking  it  might  become  self-supporting  if  it 
did  not  have  too  hard  a  struggle  at  the  start,  I,  volun- 
tarily, at  first  without  Mr.  Post's  knowledge,  and  later, 
against  his  advice,  made  good  the  weekly  deficits.  First 
and  last  I  contributed  eighty  thousand  dollars  to  this  enter- 
prise. Regarding  this  purely  as  one  of  my  contributions 
to  our  cause  I  took  no  evidence  either  of  debt  or  owner- 
ship consideration.  An  effort  to  throw  the  paper  against 
Mr.  Bryan  was  prevented  by  Mr.  Post.  In  1897  I  was 
pretty  badly  hit  by  the  panic  and  had  to  withdraw  my 
financial  assistance  with  only  a  week's  warning.  Mr. 
Post  left  the  Recorder  at  about  this  time  and  the  paper 
was  obliged  to  abandon  the  regular  newspaper  field,  though 
it  continued  as  a  kind  of  court  calendar. 

In  the  readjustment  I  was  compelled  to  pay  an  addi- 
tional twenty  thousand  dollars,  the  courts  maintaining  that 
I  was  a  stockholder.  I  did  not  mind  having  put  in  the 
eighty  thousand,  but  I  always  considered  the  enforced  pay- 
ment of  that  additional  twenty  thousand  a  great  injustice. 

Subsequently  Mr.  Post  established  The  Public  in  Chi- 


HENRY  GEORGE  55 

cago.  To  this  truly  democratic  weekly  journal  it  has  been 
my  privilege  to  give  some  support. 

In  such  ways  as  these  I  was  helping  Mr.  George's  cause 
and  it  was  my  ambition  to  become  able  to  do  all  the  out- 
side work,  the  rough  and  tumble  tasks,  leaving  him  free 
and  undisturbed  in  his  most  useful  and  enduring  field  of 
influence,  that  of  writing.  It  was  my  privilege  to  be 
partly  instrumental  in  making  it  possible  for  him  to  write 
his  last  book  —  a  privilege  for  which  I  shall  never  cease 
to  be  profoundly  grateful. 

A  warm  friendship  sprang  up  between  my  father  and 
Mr.  George  and  the  latter  built  a  house  at  Fort  Hamil- 
ton, Brooklyn,  next  to  my  father's  and  my  brother  Al- 
bert's and  very  near  the  summer  home  of  my  family  at 
the  same  place.  Together  my  father  and  Mr.  George 
selected  family  burial  lots  adjoining  each  other  in  Green- 
wood Cemetery  and  overlooking  the  ocean.  Here  as 
time  goes  on  members  of  our  respective  families  are  gath- 
ered to  their  final  rest. 

I  was  with  Mr.  George  a  great  deal  in  the  Fort  Hamil- 
ton days  when  his  home  was  the  headquarters  of  the  single 
tax  movement  in  this  country.  Sometimes  he  went  with 
me  on  bicycling  excursions,  and  we  used  to  laugh  a  good 
deal  about  one  business  trip  he  made  with  me.  I  invited 
him  to  go,  telling  him  that  I  should  not  be  very  busy,  that 
we  could  take  our  wheels  and  have  some  time  to  visit.  It 
was  a  western  trip.  We  stopped  at  a  good  many  towns, 
I  had  interviews  with  several  men  in  each  place  and,  as  was 
my  custom,  I  made  no  discrimination  between  night  and 
day  when  it  came  to  settling  business  matters,  or  taking 
trains.  To  me  it  was  rather  a  leisurely  journey.  We 
got  in  a  few  spins  on  our  bicycles  and  of  course  we  visited 


56  MY  STORY 

on  the  train.  Mr.  George  said  nothing  to  me  about  the 
character  of  the  trip,  but  when  he  got  home  his  comment 
to  Mrs.  George  was, 

"  Well,  if  Tom  calls  this  trip  one  when  he  wasn't  very 
busy,  he  needn't  invite  me  to  go  on  one  when  he  is." 

In  Mr.  George's  last  campaign  for  mayor  of  New  York 
in  1897  I  was  his  political  manager.  It  was  during  that 
campaign  that  I  was  hissed  in  a  public  meeting,  the  first 
and  only  time  in  my  life  that  that  ever  happened  to  me. 
It  was  at  a  meeting  in  Brooklyn  in  a  large  hall  or  an  opera 
house.  As  I  stepped  forward  to  the  middle  of  the  stage 
to  begin  my  speech  a  slight  hissing  came  from  the  house, 
but  it  was  overbalanced  by  the  applause.  A  few  moments 
later  when  I  had  gotten  fairly  started  it  came  again,  this 
time  loud  and  insistent  and  from  a  group  of  men  seated 
in  the  front  and  near  the  center  of  the  balcony.  I  stopped, 
looked  towards  them  and  called  out,  "  Well,  what  is  it? 
What  don't  you  like?  Tell  me;  maybe  I  can  explain." 
No  answer,  but  more  hisses. 

"  Ohr  you  don't  know  what  you  are  hissing  for?  You 
were  just  told  to  do  it,"  I  continued.  "  Well,  come  on, 
give  us  some  more  of  it.  I  like  it,  it  makes  me  feel 
good,"  and  I  coaxed  for  more  hissing,  making  the  sound 
of  the  tongue  against  the  teeth  used  to  urge  a  horse  to 
greater  speed.  But  I  got  no  response  now  and  the  meet- 
ing was  not  disturbed  again. 

The  group  of  hissers  had  evidently  been  sent  to  the  meet- 
ing with  instructions  to  break  it  up,  but  their  courage  failed 
them.  When  the  meeting  was  over  they  followed  me  out 
and  while  I  was  waiting  for  the  private  trolley  car  in  which 
I  was  traveling  that  night,  a  great  husky  workman  standing 
near  me  on  the  sidewalk  exclaimed  in  loud  tones,  "  Well, 


HENRY   GEORGE 


HENRY  GEORGE  57 

did  you  see  the  big throw  the  con  into 

them!" 

Intending  to  pay  me  a  compliment,  he  called  me 
a  name  which  Southerners  and  Westerners  usually  con- 
sider sufficient  provocation  for  a  quarrel,  and  my  heart 
stood  still  for  a  moment,  for  my  brother  Albert  was  just 
behind  me  and  I  fully  expected  him  to  reach  past  me  and 
hit  the  man  who  had  spoken.  I  reached  one  arm  behind 
me  and  got  hold  of  my  brother  and  put  my  other  hand  on 
the  man's  shoulder  and  said,  "  Come,  my  friend,  help  me 
to  persuade  these  fellows  to  go  with  me  to  my  next  meet- 
ing," and  then  I  invited  the  group  of  men  who  had  tried 
to  stop  my  speech  to  get  into  my  car  and  go  with  me. 
Completely  bluffed  by  this  time  they  all  slunk  away. 

When  the  question  of  Mr.  George's  candidacy  was 
being  discussed  by  some  of  his  friends  and  advisers  and  it 
had  been  decided  that  he  should  run,  someone  suggested 
that  the  campaign  might  cost  him  his  life.  He  was  not 
yet  sixty  years  of  age,  but  the  hard  lines  of  his  life  had 
told  upon  him,  and  his  friends  knew  his  physical  strength 
could  hardly  measure  up  to  the  demands  of  a  heated  politi- 
cal struggle.  When  the  suggestion  that  his  life  might  be 
the  forfeit  was  made,  Mr.  George  straightened  suddenly 
in  his  chair,  his  eyes  brightened,  and  with  his  whole  heart 
evidently  in  his  answer  he  said: 

;'  Wouldn't  it  be  glorious  to  die  that  way!  " 

His  body  was  weaker,  but  the  same  intrepid  spirit  was  in 
the  man  as  when  he  had  made  his  first  campaign  for  mayor 
of  New  York  ten  years  before.  Then  when  William  M. 
Ivins  had  approached  him  on  behalf  of  Tammany  Hall 
and  the  County  Democracy,  offering  him  a  seat  in  Congress 
sealed,  signed  and  delivered  if  he  would  withdraw  from 


58  MY  STORY 

the  mayoralty  contest  Mr.  George  said,  "  If  I  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  elected  as  you  say,  why  do  you  want  me  to  with- 
draw?" And  to  Mr.  Ivins's  reply,  "  You  cannot  be 
elected,  but  your  running  will  raise  hell  1  "  Mr.  George 
rejoined  that  he  did  not  want  to  be  elected,  but  he  did 
want  to  raise  hell.  It  is  this,  this  disregard  of  self-interest, 
this  indifference  to  one's  personal  fate,  this  willingness  to 
"  raise  hell  "  for  the  sake  of  a  cause  or  to  give  one's  life 
for  it  that  the  world  cannot  understand.  And  it  is  be- 
cause the  world  has  never  understood  that  men  like  Henry 
George  in  all  the  ages  have  had  to  pay  so  big  a  price  for 
just  the  chance  to  serve. 


VII 

THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS 

A  MAN  of  thirty-four  at  the  high  tide  of  a  successful 
business  career,  learning  every  day  to  utilize  special  priv- 
ileges to  increase  his  wealth,  and  satisfying  his  natural 
aptitude  for  mechanics  by  working  on  inventions,  tied  up 
with  numerous  partners  in  big  enterprises  of  various  kinds, 
is  somewhat  bewildered  as  to  just  what  his  future  course 
of  action  should  be  when  his  civic  consciousness  first  as- 
serts itself  —  at  least  this  was  my  case.  To  all  outward 
appearances,  I  went  along  much  as  before  for  some  time 
after  my  conversion  to  Mr.  George's  social  philosophy. 
Then  chance  sent  me  off  into  a  new  field  —  one  I  had  not 
the  remotest  intention  of  entering,  though  nearly  all  my 
progenitors  of  whom  there  is  any  historical  record  had 
been  in  it  before  me.  Richard  M.  Johnson  as  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  had  attained  the  highest  office 
of  any  of  these,  the  political  activities  of  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  family  taking  them  into  various  southern 
State  legislatures,  to  Congress  and  making  governors  of  a 
few. 

It  was  in  the  year  1888  while  I  was  up  the  lakes  on  a 
fishing  trip  that  I  was  nominated  for  Congress  by  the 
Democrats  of  the  twenty-first  congressional  district  of 
Ohio.  In  spite  of  my  association  with  Mr.  George  and 
his  ambitions  for  me  —  or  rather  for  the  cause  through 

59 


60  MY  STORY 

me  —  I  was  still  very  indifferent  to  matters  political.  I 
had  never  voted  —  a  fact  let  me  hasten  to  add  which  I 
never  advertised  in  any  of  my  political  campaigns  1  The 
nomination  was  a  complete  surprise  to  me  and  I  did  not 
learn  of  it  until  after  the  convention  had  adjourned.  I 
don't  know  to  this  day  why  I  was  nominated.  Of  course 
my  street  railroad  battles  had  brought  me  somewhat  into 
the  public  eye  and  I  think  the  Democratic  managers  be- 
lieved that  I  would  be  a  good  spender.  Mr.  George 
urged  me  to  accept,  and  after  careful  consideration  I 
decided  to  do  so. 

This  district  was  so  strongly  "  protectionist  "  in  senti- 
ment that  even  the  Democrats  who  had  represented  it 
had  been  protectionists;  so  the  local  managers  advised  me 
to  be  very  careful  in  framing  my  letter  of  acceptance, 
saying  that  if  I  were  not  too  radical  they  believed  I  might 
win. 

With  this  warning  in  mind  I  was  careful  —  to  state  my 
position  exactly  —  and  I  did  it  in  the  following  sentences : 

"  I  am,  as  you  all  know,  in  personal  belief  a  free  trader  and 
advocate  making,  as  soon  as  it  can  be  lawfully  done,  a  radical 
change  in  the  present  system  of  taxation  by  which  change  the 
burden  shall  be  shifted  from  the  products  of  labor  where  it  now 
bears  heaviest  onto  the  monopoly  of  natural  opportunities  to  labor. 
This,  I  am  well  aware,  is  for  the  future  and  not  yet  in  present 
issue.  However  reluctant  and  personally  diffident  I  have  been 
and  am  to  enter  this  campaign  of  principle  as  a  candidate,  I  will 
do  everything  in  my  power  to  bring  about  a  discussion  that 
will  demonstrate  to  the  people  that  in  freedom  and  not  in  restric- 
tion rests  the  true  solution  of  the  great  problem  of  justice  to  all 
in  bearing  common  burdens  and  of  special  privilege  to  none  at  the 
expense  of  any  others." 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        61 

This  letter  of  acceptance  was  my  platform  and  it  was 
probably  at  once  the  briefest  and  most  radical  platform 
put  forth  In  that  district  since  the  adoption  of  protection. 
I  was  beaten  by  the  Republican  nominee,  Theodore  Bur- 
ton, by  about  five  hundred  votes. 

Two  years  later  I  was  again  a  candidate  for  Congress; 
this  time  of  my  own  volition,  for  I  had  become  fully  con- 
vinced that  the  most  practical  way  to  serve  the  cause  to 
which  I  had  committed  myself  was  to  bring  the  question 
into  politics.  W.  W.  Armstrong,  editor  of  the  Cleveland 
Plain  Dealer,  was  also  a  candidate  for  the  Democratic 
nomination,  but  after  a  contest  I  carried  every  ward  in 
the  city  except  one,  and  lost  that  by  only  a  few  votes.  Mr. 
Burton,  who  had  beaten  me  two  years  before,  was  a  can- 
didate for  reelection  and  telegraphed  a  challenge  to  de- 
bate with  me  the  issues  of  the  campaign. 

The  committee  was  preparing  a  letter  declining  when 
it  occurred  to  them  to  consult  me  about  it.  I  told  them 
I  should  certainly  accept,  that  I  was  willing  to  get  off  the 
ticket  if  that  was  their  wish,  but  I  wasn't  willing  to  run 
before  I  had  been  hit.  They  received  my  decision  with 
many  misgivings.  As  the  challenged  party  I  claimed  the 
right  to  name  the  terms  of  the  contest,  and  in  the  final 
arrangement  it  was  agreed  that  each  side  should  make 
five  ten-minute  speeches  in  each  debate. 

In  the  two  years  which  had  elapsed  since  my  first  effort 
in  Cooper  Union,  I  had  increased  my  time  limit  to  ten 
minutes,  and  for  that  space  I  could  talk  like  a  whirlwind, 
though  I  probably  could  not  have  spoken  longer  at  one 
stretch  to  save  my  life.  Mr.  Burton  is  a  lawyer,  a 
scholar,  a  master  of  English,  a  practiced  speaker,  if  not 
an  orator,  but  his  style  is  deliberate  and  it  was  next  to 


62  MY  STORY 

impossible  for  him  to  get  fairly  started  under  eleven  min- 
utes. We  had  four  debates  in  public  halls  in  various 
parts  of  the  city  with  crowded  houses  at  every  meeting. 
The  principal  subject  of  discussion  was  the  tariff.  I  went 
to  the  first  of  those  engagements  with  an  outward  show  of 
cheerfulness  and  confidence  that  I  was  very  far  from  feel- 
ing, but  I  had  no  serious  apprehensions  after  the  first 
night.  The  ten  minute  rule  saved  me,  and  I  won  the 
election. 

Mr.  Burton  refused  to  run  against  me  two  years  later, 
and  when  he  was  the  opposition  candidate  for  mayor  of 
Cleveland  fifteen  years  afterwards  he  declined  absolutely 
to  debate  with  me  in  person. 

Colonel  O.  J.  Hodge  was  the  congressional  nominee  of 
the  Republicans  in  1892  and  now  it  was  I  who  issued  the 
debating  challenge.  Though  Colonel  Hodge  was  accus- 
tomed to  public  speaking,  having  been  a  member  of  the 
Ohio  legislature  and  speaker  of  the  house  of  representa- 
tives, he  refused  my  challenge,  giving  as  his  reason  that  I 
would  pack  the  meetings  against  him,  whereupon  I  pro- 
posed admission  by  ticket  only  and  volunteered  to  give  him 
all  the  tickets.  Still  he  declined.  One  evening  during 
the  campaign  I  drifted  into  one  of  his  meetings.  A  gen- 
eral invitation  was  extended  to  the  audience  to  come  for- 
ward and  meet  the  candidate.  I  went  up  with  the  rest, 
was  recognized  by  the  crowd  and  importuned  to  speak. 
The  audience  was  very  cold  when  I  commenced,  but  before 
I  had  spoken  many  minutes  I  felt  a  growing  sympathy 
among  them.  Colonel  Hodge  and  I  left  the  meeting  to- 
gether and  as  we  drove  down  town  in  my  buggy  he  said 
I  had  served  him  a  mean  trick  to  come  in  and  capture  his 
meeting  and  wind  up  by  carrying  him  off  bodily.  I  was 


TOM   L.  JOHNSON   BETWEEN  THIRTY-SIX   AND  THIRTY-EIGHT 

'I   had  become  fully   convinced   that  the  most  practical  way  to  serve  the  cause  to  which 
I  had  committed  myself  was  to  bring  the  question  into  politics." 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        63 

again  successful  and  elected  to  Congress  for  a  second 
term. 

My  congressional  experience  was  a  good  school,  and  I 
felt  that  in  a  way  it  took  the  place  of  college  in  my  life. 
It  gave  me  an  acquaintance  with  men  of  many  types  from 
all  over  the  country,  broadened  my  outlook,  enlarged  my 
vision,  and  increased  my  sense  of  responsibility.  As  Mr. 
George  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  with  me  in  Washington, 
I  might  carry  the  simile  further  and  say  it  was  like  going 
through  college  attended  by  a  private  tutor.  It  is  need- 
less to  state  that  his  advice  and  assistance  were  invaluable 
to  me.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the  distribution  of  all 
literature  which  went  out  under  my  frank. 

John  DeWitt  Warner  of  New  York,  and  Jerry  Simpson 
of  Kansas,  both  of  whom  were  fellow  members  in  my  first 
term,  were  wholly  committed  to  the  single  tax,  and  in  my 
second  term  our  little  circle  gained  another  adherent  in 
the  person  of  Judge  McGuire  of  California.  We  four, 
with  two  others,  Harter  of  Ohio,  and  Tracey  of  New 
York,  had  the  pleasure  of  voting  for  the  first  outright 
single  tax  bill  ever  acted  upon  in  a  parliamentary  body  — 
a  measure  drawn  by  Judge  McGuire. 

Besides  these  gentlemen  there  were  about  twenty  other 
members  who  were  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  question, 
every  one  of  whom  admitted  privately  that  Mr.  George's 
arguments  were  unanswerable,  but  very  few  of  whom 
would  commit  themselves  publicly.  They  took  much  the 
same  attitude  on  this  question  that  Speaker  Reed  charged 
the  Democrats  with  taking  on  the  famous  "  Reed  rules." 
In  conversation  with  Mr.  Reed  one  day  when  I  remarked 
that  I  believed  in  his  rules,  he  laughed  and  answered : 

"  Oh,  yes,  lots  of  Democrats  say  that  to  me,  but  I  no- 


64  MY  STORY 

tice  none  of  them  says  it  publicly  on  the  floor  of  the 
House." 

I  replied  that  I  had  already  said  it  publicly  in  my  own 
district,  for  when  my  Republican  opponent  had  tried  to 
make  the  Reed  rules  an  issue  in  our  debates  my  answer  had 
been  that  I  didn't  know  much  about  them,  but  what  I  did 
know  I  liked.  It  was  manifestly  silly  to  go  to  the  expense 
of  electing  and  maintaining  members  of  Congress  and  then 
to  permit  them  to  be  considered  absent  when  they  chose 
to  refuse  to  answer  to  their  names  in  roll-call.  "  Well, 
I'll  watch  you,"  said  Mr.  Reed. 

At  the  very  first  opportunity  I  expressed  my  approval 
on  the  floor  of  the  House  and  Mr.  Reed  and  I  enjoyed 
the  situation  more  than  some  of  my  colleagues  did.  The 
latter  complained  frequently  throughout  my  two  terms 
that  I  embarrassed  them.  On  the  tariff  matter,  for  in- 
stance, they  said  they  could  answer  the  ordinary  objec- 
tions of  Republicans  very  well,  but  they  couldn't  answer  a 
Republican  who  pulled  one  of  my  speeches  out  of  his 
pocket  and  said,  "  Well,  here's  a  member  of  your  own 
party,  Johnson  of  Ohio,  who  not  only  says  the  Democrats 
haven't  kept  their  party  pledges  but  that  they  haven't  even 
tried  to  keep  them." 

I  was  an  enthusiastic  bicyclist,  as  I  have  already  said, 
and  Mr.  George  and  I  frequently  took  long  trips  together 
on  our  wheels.  I  taught  Jerry  Simpson  to  ride  a  bicycle 
and  I  can  positively  deny  the  basis  of  the  tradition  which 
came  to  be  associated  with  his  name  in  the  popular  mind. 
Jerry  did  wear  socks. 

My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Harrison,  who  was  Presi- 
dent during  my  first  term  in  Congress,  dated  back  to  the 
time  when  he  had  been  our  lawyer  in  Indianapolis,  and  my 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        65 

acquaintance  with  Mr.  Bryan,  who  was  one  of  the  young 
members,  had  its  beginning  here. 

My  committee  appointments  could  not  by  any  stretch 
of  the  imagination  be  considered  important.  The  Com- 
mittee on  the  District  of  Columbia  got  pretty  busy  shortly 
after  my  appointment  to  it,  however,  and  in  less  than  five 
months  we  succeeded  in  having  a  resolution  adopted  pro- 
viding for  an  investigation  of  the  taxing  methods  of  the 
District.  This  committee  had  discovered  among  other 
things  that  the  assessment  of  land  values  was  seventy-six 
million  dollars  when  it  should  have  been  more  than  three 
hundred  million;  that  small  residence  property  was  dis- 
criminated against,  while  vacant  lots  and  valuable  prop- 
erty were  favored.  The  resolution  stated  these  facts  and 
authorized  a  select  committee  of  three  to  inquire  into  the 
method  of  assessing  land  values.  This  committee  con- 
sisted of  Joseph  E.  Washington  of  Tennessee,  James 
Wadsworth  of  New  York,  and  myself  as  chairman. 

As  our  work  proceeded  and  the  investigation  went  on 
more  and  more  interest  was  taken  in  it  by  landowners  who 
were  paying  less  than  their  share  of  taxes.  Towards  the 
end  of  it  they  became  thoroughly  aroused.  Assessors  who 
cooperated  with  us  at  first  and  seemed  to  be  in  sympathy 
with  the  movement  were  soon  won  away  or  frightened 
away.  It  had  some  effect  on  the  assessment  which  fol- 
lowed, but  the  greatest  result  was  that  it  was  the  first  time 
any  comprehensive  report  had  been  made  showing  specific- 
ally the  low  assessment  of  valuable  property,  the  high  as- 
sessment of  small  homes  and  the  utter  futility  of  all  at- 
tempts to  tax  personal  or  intangible  property. 

So  far  as  I  know  this  was  the  very  beginning  of  a  line 
of  inquiry  that  has  gone  on  extensively  in  this  country 


66  MY  STORY 

since,  is  the  heart  of  the  Budget  fight  —  the  big  question 
in  English  politics  at  the  present  time, —  has  been  applied 
in  parts  of  Australia,  in  New  Zealand  and  in  Western 
Canada,  and  is  to-day  a  recognized  part  of  the  taxing  sys- 
tems in  these  places.  It  was  the  first  authoritative  expres- 
sion of  any  public  body  on  this  subject,  and  coming  from  a 
committee  of  Congress  had  a  good  deal  of  weight.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  tax  laws  of  the  future  will  be  framed 
on  the  principles  embodied  in  this  report. 

Its  recommendations  were  based  on  this  central  truth, 
that  a  tax  on  the  value  of  land  is  the  only  just  tax.  Analy- 
sis shows  that  the  rental  value  of  land  does  not  arise  from 
any  expenditure  of  labor  or  investment  of  capital  by  the 
owner  of  the  land.  The  value  which  the  owner  of  the 
land  may  create  by  the  expenditure  of  labor  and  capital  is 
a  value  which  attaches  to  buildings  or  improvement.  The 
value  which  attaches  to  the  land  itself  comes  from  the 
growth  of  the  whole  community.  It  was  this  growth  and 
improvement  of  the  community  which  made  some  land  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  worth  over  three  millions  of  dol- 
lars an  acre.  If  the  owners  of  this  land  had  left  it  idle, 
if  they  had  been  absentees  or  idiots,  this  value  would  have 
attached  to  the  land  to  the  same  extent  and  in  the  same 
manner.  It  came  from  a  growth  of  population  and  gen- 
eral improvement  and  was  primarily  due  to  the  fact  that 
that  particular  place  had  been  selected  as  the  site  of  the  na- 
tional capital.  Thus  everyone  who  adds  even  temporarily 
to  the  population  and  business  of  Washington  or  any  other 
city  does  something  to  add  to  the  value  of  the  land,  some- 
thing to  increase  a  fund  which  may  be  taken  to  defray  all 
the  expenses  of  government  without  levying  any  tax  on 
legitimate  property  or  improvement,  or  which  will  in  any 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        67 

way  increase  the  cost  of  living.  Every  resident  must  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  contribute  to  the  rental  value  of  land. 
In  this  way  every  resident,  yes,  every  sojourner,  may  be 
said,  in  what  he  pays  for  the  use  of  land,  even  though  it 
be  for  a  single  night's  lodging,  to  pay  a  just  tax  sufficient 
to  provide  for  the  legitimate  expenses  of  the  local  govern- 
ment and  to  make  the  most  ample  public  improvements. 
But  if  individual  land-owners  are  permitted  to  put  the 
proceeds  of  this  tax  in  their  pockets,  and  taxes  are  then 
levied  that  fall  on  use  and  consumption,  the  body  of  citi- 
zens is  really  taxed  twice.  "  The  first  and  paramount 
consideration  in  taxation  should  be  equality  of  burden," 
and  only  by  taking  the  rental  value  of  land  in  taxes  can 
such  equality  be  secured. 


VIII 

THE   MONOPOLIST   IN    CONGRESS — Continued 

DURING  my  first  term  in  Congress  it  occurred  to  me 
that  the  "  leave  to  print,"  so  generally  employed  by  mem- 
bers to  include  in  their  speeches  statistics,  long  quotations, 
etc.,  might  be  used  to  great  advantage  in  spreading  our 
propaganda.  I  saw  no  reason  why  I  should  not  arrange 
with  some  of  my  colleagues  to  ask  leave  to  print  certain 
portions  of  Mr.  George's  book  Protection  or  Free  Trade, 
as  a  part  of  our  various  speeches  on  a  tariff  bill.  So  I 
approached  the  following  named  members  and  laid  my 
plan  before  them :  William  J.  Stone  of  Kentucky,  Joseph 
E.  Washington  of  Tennessee,  George  W.  Fithian  of  Illi- 
nois, Thomas  Bowman  of  Iowa  and  Jerry  Simpson  of 
Kansas.  It  was  agreed  among  us  that  each  should  ask 
leave  to  print  a  specific  part  of  the  book,  so  that  the 
speeches  of  the  six  would  comprise  the  entire  treatise. 
The  speeches  were  made  between  March  n  and  April  8, 
1892,  and  when  the  whole  was  in  print  in  the  Congres- 
sional Record  it  was  simply  a  matter  of  restoring  the 
original  sequence  to  make  the  completed  volume  ready  to 
frank  and  send  out. 

I  had  100,000  copies  printed  in  pamphlet  and  an- 
nounced that  I  would  mail  them  to  all  applicants  at  one 
cent  per  copy.  This  issue  was  made  in  May,  1892,  and 
so  great  was  the  demand  that  by  November  i  of  that  year 
1,062,000  copies  had  been  printed  of  which  1,024,000 

68 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        69 

were  distributed  before  the  presidential  election  and  the 
rest  afterwards.  Nearly  all  of  these  were  sent  out  on 
application,  and  most  of  them  addressed  to  individual  sub- 
scribers. In  some  instances  political  clubs  subscribed  for 
thousands  of  copies,  sometimes  providing  me  with  the 
names  and  addresses  of  persons  to  whom  they  were  to 
be  sent;  sometimes  having  them  sent  in  bulk  and  attending 
to  the  distribution  themselves.  The  free  traders  of  the 
country  raised  a  fund  for  this  work,  and  we  printed  a 
second  edition  which  was  retailed  at  two  cents  a  copy. 
The  sales  did  not  of  course  cover  the  cost  and  the  deficit 
was  met  by  this  voluntary  fund.  We  purchased  the  type 
and  paid  for  the  press  work  and  binding  by  private  sub- 
scription. The  government  through  the  franking  priv- 
ilege, furnished  the  postage,  but  the  postage  only. 

Now  the  Republican  committees  had  been  wont  to  em- 
ploy this  method  of  distributing  campaign  literature,  and 
had  sent  out  tons  of  pamphlets  containing  protectionist 
falsehoods  and  misleading  statistics  on  economic  questions 
of  all  kinds  —  sometimes  in  such  a  way  that  the  govern- 
ment paid  for  the  printing  as  well  as  the  postage.  This 
is  one  of  Privilege's  established  methods  for  distributing 
its  propaganda,  but  when  we  presumed  to  invoke  the 
same  means  to  spread  a  great  truth  the  hue  and  cry  was 
raised  all  over  the  country.  What  was  a  perfectly  proper 
action  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  was  a  "  low-down  political 
trick  "  when  I  did  it.  The  newspapers  gave  the  impres- 
sion that  I  had  shamefully  abused  my  privileges  and  had 
by  the  exercise  of  black  magic  or  similar  means  hoodooed 
a  trusting  and  innocent  national  government.  This  im- 
pression I  never  was  able  to  correct. 


70  MY  STORY 

Have  you  ever  noticed  how  a  story  which  involves 
scandal  is  played  up  by  the  press?  That  is  because  it  is 
"  news."  But  a  refutation  of  the  scandal  is  never 
"  news;  "  consequently  it  either  never  gets  into  the  papers 
at  all  or  is  published  in  small  type  in  the  "  Letters  from 
the  People  "  department,  which  department  is  popular 
only  with  the  persons  who  have  written  the  letters. 

There  were  many  amusing  incidents  connected  with  the 
distribution  of  Protection  or  Free  Trade.  Republican 
congressmen  would  come  to  me,  often  with  wry  faces,  and 
hand  over  requests  for  the  pamphlets  accompanied  by 
small  remittances.  Others  were  good  natured  about  it, 
and  it  was  a  common  thing  to  be  accosted  after  this  fash- 
ion, "  Say,  Johnson,  one  of  my  constituents  wants  fifty 
copies  of  that  damn  book  of  yours.  I  hate  to  have  'em 
circulating  in  my  district  but  I  don't  see  how  I  can  get  out 
of  sending  them." 

The  first  national  political  convention  I  ever  attended 
was  the  Democratic  Convention  which  nominated  Cleve- 
land at  Chicago  in  June  of  1892,  to  which  I  was  a  district 
delegate.  The  committee  on  resolutions  of  which  Sena- 
tor Vilas  of  Wisconsin  was  chairman  was  controlled  by 
protection  Democrats,  and  the  tariff  plank  which  they 
were  about  to  report  was  a  pitiful  straddle  on  the  ques- 
tion. I  thought  it  was  worth  while  to  test  the  temper 
of  the  convention  on  a  more  radical  plank  and  I  got  Col- 
onel Henry  Watterson  of  Kentucky  and  Honorable 
Ben  T.  Cable  of  Illinois  to  cooperate  with  me  to  this  end. 
We  consulted  with  Lawrence  T.  Neal  of  Ohio,  a  member 
of  the  resolutions  committee  and  found  him  willing  to 
bring  in  a  minority  report.  Among  us  we  framed  the 
following  plank : 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        71 

We  denounce  Republican  protection  as  a  fraud,  a  robbery  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  American  people  for  the  benefit  of  the 
few.  We  declare  it  to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  that  the  federal  government  has  no  constitutional 
power  to  impose  and  collect  tariff  duties,  except  for  the  purpose 
of  revenue  only,  and  we  demand  that  the  collection  of  such  taxes 
shall  be  limited  to  the  necessities  of  the  government  when  honestly 
and  economically  administered.  We  denounce  the  McKinley 
tariff  law  enacted  by  the  Fifty-first  Congress  as  the  culminating 
atrocity  of  class  legislation;  we  endorse  the  efforts  made  by  the 
Democrats  of  the  present  Congress  to  modify  its  oppressive  features 
in  the  direction  of  free  raw  materials  and  cheaper  manufactured 
goods  that  enter  into  general  consumption  and  we  promise  its 
repeal  as  one  of  the  beneficent  results  that  will  follow  the  action 
of  the  people  in  entrusting  power  to  the  Democratic  party.  Since 
the  McKinley  tariff  went  into  operation  there  have  been  ten  re- 
ductions of  the  wages  of  the  laboring  man  to  one  increase.  We 
deny  that  there  has  been  any  increase  of  prosperity  to  the  country 
since  that  tariff  went  into  operation,  and  we  point  to  the  dullness 
and  distress,  the  wage  reductions  and  the  strikes  in  the  iron  trade 
as  the  best  possible  evidence  that  no  such  prosperity  has  resulted 
from  the  McKinley  Act.  We  call  the  attention  of  thoughtful 
Americans  to  the  fact  that  after  thirty  years  of  restrictive 
taxes  against  the  importation  of  foreign  wealth,  in  exchange  for 
our  agricultural  surplus  the  homes  and  farms  of  the  country  have 
become  burdened  with  a  real  estate  mortgage  debt,  $2,500,000,000, 
exclusive  of  all  other  forms  of  indebtedness;  that  in  one  of  the 
chief  agricultural  states  of  the  West  there  appears  a  real  estate 
mortgage  debt  averaging  $165  per  capita  of  the  total  population, 
and  that  similar  conditions  and  tendencies  are  shown  to  exist  in 
other  agricultural  exporting  states.  We  denounce  a  policy  that 
fosters  no  industry  so  much  as  it  does  that  of  the  sheriff. 

I  dictated  the  first  sentence  with  the  exception  of  the 
word  Republican,  being  content  with  denouncing  protec- 


72  MY  STORY 

tion,  without  designating  any  special  brand,  but  Mr.  Neal 
inserted  "  Republican."  He  couldn't  get  one  other  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  to  join  him  in  signing  his  minority 
report. 

Immediately  after  it  was  presented  to  the  convention 
the  permanent  chairman,  William  L.  Wilson  of  West 
Virginia,  recognized  Colonel  Watterson,  who  supported  it 
in  a  characteristic  speech.  The  fight  was  now  on.  Mr. 
Cable  and  I  busied  ourselves  among  the  delegates  urging 
them  to  vote  for  the  Neal  report,  and  I  kept  as  close  as 
possible  to  Chairman  Wilson  too.  Delegate  Lamb  of 
Indiana  asked  a  number  of  times  how  many  names  were 
signed  to  the  minority  report  but  his  question  wasn't  an- 
swered, and  the  convention  didn't  know  that  it  bore  one 
lone  signature. 

At  the  close  of  the  debate  the  chairman  recognized  me. 
The  convention  had  grown  restive  and  disorderly  and 
I  knew  that  if  I  didn't  get  the  attention  of  that  audience 
of  fifteen  thousand  with  my  first  words  I  couldn't  get  it 
at  all.  I  spoke  for  three  minutes  and  was  hoarse  for  three 
weeks.  The  minority  report  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  564 
to  342.  The  whole  thing  was  done  in  less  than  thirty 
minutes,  Neal,  Watterson  and  I  being  the  only  ones  who 
had  spoken  in  favor  of  it.  We  had  no  specific  arrange- 
ment with  Chairman  Wilson  though  he  was  in  sympathy 
with  our  efforts.  The  plank  was  adopted  because  the 
majority  of  the  delegates  present  preferred  it  to  the  one 
presented  by  the  resolutions  committee,  and  the  action 
brought  consternation  to  Senator  Vilas  who  had  paid  little 
attention  to  the  Neal  plank  thinking  it  couldn't  possibly 
prevail,  as  also  to  the  other  managers  who  were  as  down- 
cast as  our  little  coterie  was  jubilant.  As  we  left  the  hall 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        73 

William  C.  Whitney,  Cleveland's  representative  in  the 
convention,  said  to  me, 

"  I  would  rather  have  seen  Cleveland  defeated  than  to 
have  had  that  fool  free  trade  plank  adopted." 

The  "  fool  free  trade  plank  "  caused  Mr.  Cleveland 
much  distress  of  mind  too.  Mr.  George  and  I  went  to 
Buzzard's  Bay  to  talk  it  over  with  him.  We  might  as 
well  have  stayed  away  so  far  as  getting  Mr.  Cleveland 
to  express  himself  was  concerned.  He  f  alked  but  he  didn't 
say  anything.  He  was  pleasant  and  friendly,  bore  us  no 
ill  will  for  our  part  in  making  his  platform  declare  for 
free  trade,  but  when  we  came  away  he  had  not  divulged 
his  views  on  the  question.  In  his  letter  of  acceptance 
he  made  use  of  the  term,  "  impossible  free  trade  "  as  a 
sop  to  the  other  side. 

In  his  book  Our  Presidents  and  How  We  Make  Them, 
Colonel  A.  K.  McClure  says  it  was  only  the  masterful 
management  of  William  C.  Whitney  that  held  that  con- 
vention for  Cleveland,  and  Cleveland  himself  believed  he 
owed  his  nomination  to  Whitney  and  said  so  to  us  on  the 
occasion  quoted.  I  told  him  that  Mr.  Whitney  deserved 
no  more  credit  for  the  action  of  the  convention  in  this  re- 
gard than  he  would  for  pushing  a  load  of  hay  that  was 
already  well  started  down  a  hill. 

The  repudiation  of  its  platform  pledges  by  the  Re- 
publican party  in  the  last  session  of  Congress  is  history 
repeating  itself.  Change  the  name  Republican  to  Demo- 
crat and  substitute  1894  for  1909  and  you  have  the  story 
of  Democratic  legislation  on  the  tariff,  following  the  cam- 
paign already  alluded  to  in  which  a  million  copies  of 
Protection  or  Free  Trade  were  circulated.  The  Wilson 
bill  was  more  viciously  protectionist  in  some  of  its  fea- 


74  MY  STORY 

tures  than  the  McKinley  law  which  it  succeeded  for  it 
took  sugar  off  the  free  list,  and  when  I  protested  against 
it  saying  that  if  I  did  not  know  better  I  should  be  obliged 
to  suppose  that  "  the  gentleman  from  Maine  "  and  his 
fellows  of  the  minority  had  hypnotized  the  majority  and 
written  the  bill  for  them,  and  were  making  a  pretense  of 
opposing  it  in  order  to  induce  Democrats  to  accept  a  Re- 
publican measure  under  the  delusion  that  it  was.  a  Demo- 
cratic one,  Mr.  Reed  replied, 

"  On  the  contrary  I  called  the  attention  of  the  com- 
mittee to  that  very  bad  break  the  first  time  I  got  a  look  at 
the  bill." 

The  McKinley  bill  and  the  Wilson  bill  seemed  to  be 
based  on  opposite  principles,  but  in  reality  the  only  differ- 
ence was  that  McKinley  graciously  gave  the  manufacturers 
what  they  desired,  while  Wilson  put  them  to  the  incon- 
venience of  fighting  to  get  the  things  they  wanted.  But 
neither  of  these  bills  nor  any  subsequent  tariff  bill  has 
been  framed  in  the  interests  of  the  consumer. 

We  are  constantly  hearing  it  said  that  the  manufacturers 
get  what  they  want  because  they  have  a  lobby,  and  the 
reason  the  consumers  come  short  is  because  they  have 
nobody  to  represent  them  at  Washington.  Nobody  to 
represent  them!  If  Congress  were  true  to  the  principles 
of  democracy  it  would  be  the  people's  lobby. 

I  predicted  the  defeat  of  the  Democracy  as  the  result 
of  our  failure  to  stand  by  our  party  pledges.  The  predic- 
tion was  fulfilled.  I  went  down  with  the  rest  of  the  ticket 
and  Mr.  Burton  was  again  elected  to  represent  the  twenty- 
first  district  of  Ohio.  I  don't  want  to  give  the  impression 
that  I  considered  myself  a  political  prophet;  I  didn't. 
The  fulfillment  was  just  an  exception  to  Colonel  Inger- 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS      75 

soil's  rule  in  which  I  believed  then  and  believe  even  more 
strongly  now,  viz.,  that  in  politics  there  is  nothing  so 
uncertain  as  a  sure  thing.  The  fact  that  I  ran  several 
thousand  ahead  of  my  ticket  must  surely  be  construed  as 
an  evidence  of  the  approval  of  the  people  of  my  district  of 
my  consistent  stand  on  my  platform  promises. 

When  the  Wilson  bill  was  under  discussion  and  I 
moved  an  amendment  putting  steel  rails  on  the  free  list 
a  great  howl  went  up.  How  could  I,  a  manufacturer 
of  steel  rails,  seriously  make  such  a  proposal?  It  was 
in  vain  that  I  assured  the  members  of  the  House  that  I 
was  not  representing  my  stockholders  in  Congress  but 
that  larger  constituency  which  would  be  benefited  by  free 
trade.  When  I  said  quite  frankly  that  I  was  a  monopolist 
and  that  so  long  as  I  continued  in  business  I  should  take 
advantage  of  all  the  class  legislation  enacted  by  Congress, 
but  that  as  a  member  of  Congress  I  should  work,  speak 
and  vote  against  such  class  legislation  I  was  accused  of 
insincerity.  That  cry  of  "  insincerity  "  has  followed  all 
my  public  work.  I  had  made  my  money  by  monopoly, 
therefore  my  opposition  to  monopoly  could  not  be  gen- 
uine. 

An  impecunious  writer,  a  poor  labor  agitator,  an  ob- 
scure soap-box  orator  was  insincere  in  his  opposition  to 
the  system  because  he  had  nothing  at  stake;  I,  a  bene- 
ficiary, was  insincere  because  I  had  everything  at  stake. 
An  amusing  encounter  which  I  once  had  with  a  represen- 
tative of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Cleveland  illus- 
trates this  very  point  admirably.  This  man  was  objecting 
to  my  stand  on  some  people's  measure  and  wound  up  by 
saying,  "  You  can't  be  right  on  this.  You  have  too  much 
money."  ".Well,  what  about  Peter  Witt?"  I  retorted, 


76  MY  STORY 

naming  an  advocate  of  the  same  measure  who  was  poor, 
and  he  replied,  "  He  has  too  little."  "  Will  you  tell  me," 
I  said,  "  just  what  amount  of  money  a  man  may  have  be- 
fore he  can  be  right?"  That  is  the  way  Privilege  rea- 
sons. 

Now  I  never  professed  unselfish  motives.  I  got  so 
much  more  happiness,  so  much  more  satisfaction  out  of 
life  in  promulgating  the  social  theories  I  learned  from  Mr. 
George  than  I  ever  got  from  making  money  that  it  was 
no  sacrifice  for  me  to  give  up  the  one  for  the  other.  But 
I  was  still  engaged  in  some  big  money-making  enterprises 
while  I  was  in  Congress  and  I  was  more  than  willing  to 
use  the  knowledge  I  had  gained  in  business  to  confound 
the  advocates  of  Privilege. 

I  fought  hard  to  have  steel  rails  put  on  the  free  list  and 
knowing  Mr.  Dalzell  of  Pennsylvania,  as  the  member 
most  interested  in  the  iron  and  steel  schedule  I  gave  him 
several  days'  notice  of  what  I  intended  to  do,  and  in  the 
debate  yielded  him  part  of  my  time. 

I  reasoned  that  if  I  contended  for  free  trade  in  this 
particular  branch  of  industry  with  which  I  was  so  familiar 
and  in  which  I  was  personally  interested,  it  would  clear 
the  way  for  a  similar  fight  on  all  other  free  trade  amend- 
ments. It  could  not  be  charged  that  I  was  for  free  trade 
in  every  district  but  my  own  nor  in  every  industry  except 
the  one  in  which  I  was  myself  engaged. 

When  I  spoke  of  the  steel-rail  pool  Mr.  Dalzell  sur- 
prised me  by  denying  its  existence.  He  said  there  had 
been  a  combination  between  certain  steel  rail  men,  which 
had  been  broken  up  by  the  refusal  of  a  large  number 
of  firms  to  go  into  it,  and  that  it  had  fallen  of  its  own 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        77 

weight  but  that  there  was  no  condition  in  it  for  keeping 
up  prices,  etc.,  etc.,  and  that  now  this  pool  was  no  more. 
Mr.  Dalzell  was  like  that  secretary  of  the  interior  of  a 
later  day  who  went  out  to  investigate  the  beef  trust  and 
came  back  to  Washington  from  Chicago  with  the  state- 
ment that  there  was  no  beef  trust.  He  had  asked  the 
Armours  and  they  had  said,  "  No."  And  so  Mr.  Dalzell 
had  asked  the  rail  manufacturers  whether  there  was  a 
steel-rail  pool  and  they  had  said,  "  No." 

For  answer  I  picked  up  from  my  desk  a  paper  which  I 
said  was  a  copy  of  an  agreement  proving  the  existence 
of  the  pool.  Mr.  Dalzell  said  he  was  bound  to  accept 
my  statement,  but  that  he  deprecated  trusts  as  much  as 
I  did.  I  retorted  that  as  a  business  man  I  didn't  deprecate 
trusts,  I  joined  them, —  but  that  as  a  member  of  Congress 
I  neither  represented  nor  defended  them.  I  said  that 
if  it  were  true  as  our  Republican  members  were  urging 
that  protection  was  a  good  thing  for  labor  then  Pitts- 
burgh ought  to  be  a  very  paradise  for  working  men,  but 
the  actual  fact  was  that  a  few  days  before  Mr.  Carnegie 
had  sailed  for  Jerusalem  he  utilized  the  tariff  to  reestablish 
the  steel-rail  pool  and  pay  other  manufacturers  to  shut 
up  their  works  and  throw  their  men  out  of  employment; 
then  came  a  general  cut  in  wages  in  all  his  great  estab- 
lishments; and  then  he  announced  himself  ready  to  give 
as  much  as  five  thousand  dollars  a  day  to  feed  the  unem- 
ployed of  Pittsburgh.  Privilege  doesn't  have  to  bribe 
congressmen  when  it  can  fool  them. 

Of  course  steel  rails  weren't  put  on  the  free  list,  and 
of  course  the  steel-rail  pool  continued  until  the  necessity 
for  such  combination  was  done  away  with,  when  the  va- 


7  8  MY  STORY 

rious  concerns  represented  in  them  passed  into  a  common 
ownership. 

This  merging  of  various  enterprises  into  one  wasn't 
brought  about  so  much  by  the  necessity  for  protection 
against  laws  which  forbade  combinations  in  restraint  of 
trade,  as  by  the  necessity  for  the  mutual  protection  of  the 
pool  members  against  each  other.  It  was  a  matter  of 
common  knowledge  on  the  inside  that  their  agreements 
were  ruthlessly  broken.  I  have  known  members  of  labor 
unions  to  starve  to  carry  out  their  agreements. 

While  the  Wilson  bill  was  under  consideration  I  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  some  Cleveland  cloak  manufacturers 
requesting  me  to  vote  for  a  specific  duty  in  addition  to 
an  ad  valorem  duty  on  ladies'  cloaks.  The  letter  had 
been  prepared  by  politicians  and  newspaper  men  for  the 
express  purpose  of  putting  me  in  a  hole  with  my  con- 
stituents. They  knew  perfectly  well  that  I  wouldn't  prom- 
ise to  vote  for  the  duty,  but  they  thought  my  answer 
would  give  them  the  opportunity  they  wanted  of  coming 
back  at  my  free  trade  talk  with  a  protectionist  argument 
which  would  make  me  ridiculous.  I  learned  that  the  big 
protectionists  of  my  district  were  fairly  hugging  them- 
selves in  joyful  anticipation  of  the  sorry  spectacle  I  would 
make.  They  were  about  to  silence  me  forever  in  that  dis- 
trict at  least  on  the  subject  of  free  trade. 

I  explained  the  matter  to  Mr.  George  and  he  framed 
a  letter  in  reply,  which  was  given  wide  publicity  as  part 
of  my  speech  on  the  Wilson  bill.  That  letter  was  one 
of  the  finest  pieces  of  writing  Mr.  George  ever  did,  and 
if  anything  deserves  a  place  in  this  story  it  does.  It  was 
as  follows: 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        79 

CLEVELAND,  Ohio,  Dec.  29,  1893. 

To  Joseph  Lachnect,  Emil  Weisels,  Joseph  Frankel  and  others, 
tailors  and  tailoresses  in  the  employ  of  Messrs.  Landesman, 
Hirscheimer  &  Co.,  cloak  manufacturers  of  Cleveland. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  have  received  your  communication  and  that  from  Messrs. 
Landesman,  Hirscheimer  &  Co.,  to  which  you  refer,  asking  me  to 
vote  against  the  Wilson  tariff  bill,  unless  it  is  amended  by  adding 
to  the  duty  of  45  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  which  it  proposes,  an  addi- 
tional duty  of  49//2  cents  per  pound. 

I  shall  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  My  objection  to  the  Wilson 
bill  is  not  that  its  duties  are  too  low,  but  that  they  are  too  high. 
I  will  do  all  I  can  to  cut  its  duties  down,  but  I  will  strenuously 
oppose  putting  them  up.  You  ask  me  to  vote  to  make  cloaks 
artificially  dear.  How  can  I  do  that  without  making  it  harder 
for  those  who  need  cloaks  to  get  cloaks?  Even  if  this  would 
benefit  you,  would  it  not  injure  others?  There  are  many  cloak- 
makers  in  Cleveland,  it  is  true,  but  they  are  few  as  compared  with 
the  cloak-users.  Would  you  consider  me  an  honest  representative 
if  I  would  thus  consent  to  injure  the  many  for  the  benefit  of  the 
few,  even  though  the  few  in  this  case  were  yourselves? 

And  you  ask  me  to  demand,  in  addition  to  a  monstrous  ad 
valorem  duty  of  45  per  cent.,  a  still  more  monstrous  weight  duty 
of  49^2  cents  a  pound  —  a  weight  duty  that  will  make  the  poorest 
sewing-girl  pay  as  much  tax  on  her  cheap  shoddy  cloak  as  Mrs. 
Astor  or  Mrs.  Vanderbilt  would  be  called  on  to  pay  on  a  cloak 
of  the  finest  velvets  and  embroideries !  Do  you  really  want  me  to 
vote  to  thus  put  the  burden  of  taxation  on  the  poor  while  letting 
the  rich  escape  ?  Whether  you  want  me  to  or  not,  I  will  not  do  it. 

That,  as  your  employers  say,  a  serviceable  cloak  can  be  bought 
in  Berlin  at  $1.20  affords  no  reason  in  my  mind  for  keeping  up 
the  tariff.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  strongest  reason  for  abolish- 
ing it  altogether.  There  are  lots  of  women  in  this  country  who 
would  be  rejoiced  to  get  cloaks  so  cheaply;  lots  of  women  who  must 


8o  MY  STORY 

now  pinch  and  strain  to  get  a  cloak;  lots  of  women  who  cannot 
now  afford  to  buy  cloaks,  and  must  wear  old  or  cast-off  garments 
or  shiver  with  cold.  Is  it  not  common  justice  that  we  should 
abolish  every  tax  that  makes  it  harder  for  them  to  clothe  them- 
selves ? 

No;  I  will  do  nothing  to  keep  up  duties.  I  will  do  everything 
I  can  to  cut  them  down.  I  do  not  believe  in  taxing  one  citizen 
for  the  purpose  of  enriching  another  citizen.  You  elected  me  on 
my  declaration  that  I  was  opposed  to  protection,  believing  it  but 
a  scheme  for  enabling  the  few  to  rob  the  many,  and  that  I  was 
opposed  even  to  a  tariff  for  revenue,  believing  that  the  only  just 
way  of  raising  revenues  is  by  the  single  tax  upon  land  values.  So 
long  as  I  continue  to  represent  you  in  Congress  I  shall  act  on  the 
principle  of  equal  rights  to  all  and  special  privileges  to  none,  and 
whenever  I  can  abolish  any  of  the  taxes  that  are  now  levied  on 
labor  or  the  products  of  labor  I  will  do  it,  and  where  I  cannot 
abolish  I  will  do  my  best  to  reduce.  When  you  get  tired  of  that 
you  can  elect  someone  in  my  place  who  suits  you  better.  If  you 
want  duties  kept  up,  you  may  get  an  honest  protectionist  who  will 
serve  you ;  you  cannot  get  an  honest  free  trader. 

But  I  believe  that  you  have  only  to  think  of  the  matter  to  see 
that  in  adhering  to  principle  I  will  be  acting  for  the  best  interests 
of  all  working  men  and  women,  yourselves  among  the  number. 
This  demand  for  protective  duties  for  the  benefit  of  the  American 
working  man  is  the  veriest  sham.  You  cannot  protect  labor  by 
putting  import  duties  on  goods.  Protection  makes  it  harder  for 
the  masses  of  our  people  to  live.  It  may  increase  the  profits  of 
favored  capitalists;  it  may  build  up  trusts  and  create  great  for- 
tunes, but  it  cannot  raise  wages.  You  know  for  yourselves  that 
what  your  employers  pay  you  in  wages  does  not  depend  on  what 
any  tariff  may  enable  them  to  make,  but  on  what  they  can  get 
others  to  take  your  places  for. 

You  have  to  stand  the  competition  of  the  labor  market.  Why, 
then,  should  you  try  to  shut  yourselves  out  from  the  advantages 
that  the  competition  of  the  goods  market  should  give  you?  It  is 


THE  MONOPOLIST  IN  CONGRESS        81 

not  protection  that  makes  wages  higher  here  than  in  Germany. 
They  were  higher  here  before  we  had  any  protection,  and  in  the 
saturnalia  of  protection  that  has  reigned  here  for  some  years  past 
you  have  seen  wages  go  down,  until  the  country  is  now  crowded 
with  tramps  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  are  now  supported 
by  charity.  What  made  wages  higher  than  in  Germany  is  the 
freer  access  to  land,  the  natural  means  of  all  production,  and  as 
that  is  closed  up  and  monopoly  sets  in  wages  must  decline.  What 
labor  needs  is  not  protection,  but  justice;  not  legalized  restrictions 
which  permit  one  set  of  men  to  tax  their  fellows,  but  the  free 
opportunity  for  all  for  the  exertion  of  their  own  powers.  The 
real  struggle  for  the  rights  of  labor  and  for  those  fair  wages  that 
consist  in  the  full  earnings  of  labor  is  the  struggle  for  freedom 
and  against  monopolies  and  restrictions;  and  in  the  effort  to  cut 
down  protection  it  is  timidly  beginning.  I  shall  support  the  Wil- 
son bill  with  all  my  ability  and  all  my  strength. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

TOM  L.  JOHNSON. 

Day  after  day  passed.  No  answer  came  from  Cleve- 
land. It  was  my  turn  to  be  amused  now  for  the  reply 
never  did  come. 

One  of  the  principal  movers  in  the  matter,  an  experi- 
enced newspaper  man  connected  with  the  leading  Re- 
publican daily  in  my  district,  told  me  some  time  after- 
wards that  he  had  wasted  reams  of  paper  and  burned 
much  midnight  oil  in  a  fruitless  attempt  to  answer. 
"  But,"  said  he,  "  I'm  just  as  much  a  protectionist  as  ever 
only  it  won't  work  on  ladies'  cloaks." 


IX 

SOME  PERSONAL  INCIDENTS  AND  STRAY  OBSERVATIONS 

CHANCE  was  responsible  for  my  tent  meeting  cam- 
paigning. Once  in  one  of  my  early  Congressional  cam- 
paigns when  I  wanted  to  have  a  meeting  in  the  eighteenth 
ward  in  Cleveland  there  was  no  hall  to  be  had.  A  travel- 
ing showman  had  a  small  tent  pitched  on  a  vacant  lot  and 
someone  suggested  that  it  might  be  utilized.  It  had  no 
chairs  but  there  were  a  few  boxes  which  could  be  used  as 
seats.  Very  doubtful  of  the  result  we  made  the  experi- 
ment. It  cost  me  eighteen  dollars,  I  remember.  After  that 
I  rented  tents  from  a  tent  man  and  finally  bought  one  and 
then  several. 

The  tent  meeting  has  many  advantages  over  the  hall 
meeting.  Both  sides,  I  should  say  all  sides,  will  go  to 
tent  meetings  —  while  as  rule  only  partisans  go  to  halls. 
Women  did  not  go  to  political  meetings  in  halls  in  those 
days  unless  some  especially  distinguished  person  was  ad- 
vertised to  speak,  but  they  showed  no  reluctance  about 
coming  to  tent  meetings.  In  a  tent  there  is  a  freedom 
from  restraint  that  is  seldom  present  in  halls.  The  au- 
dience seems  to  feel  that  it  has  been  invited  there  for  the 
purpose  of  finding  out  the  position  of  the  various  speakers. 
There  is  greater  freedom  in  asking  questions  too,  and 
this  heckling  is  the  most  valuable  form  of  political  educa- 
tion. Tent  meetings  can  be  held  in  all  parts  of  the  city  — 
in  short  the  meetings  are  literally  taken  to  the  people. 

82 


SOME  PERSONAL  INCIDENTS  83 

It  was  not  long  after  I  got  into  municipal  politics  in  Cleve- 
land before  the  custom  of  tent  meetings  was  employed  in 
behalf  of  ward  councilmen  as  well  as  for  candidates  on 
the  general  ticket,  and  they  too  were  heckled  and  made  to 
put  themselves  on  record.  The  custom  of  heckling  is 
the  most  healthy  influence  in  politics.  It  makes  candi- 
dates respect  pre-election  pledges,  forces  them  to  meet 
not  only  the  opposition  candidates  but  their  constituents. 

But  the  greatest  benefit  of  the  tent  meeting,  the  one 
which  cannot  be  measured,  is  the  educational  influence 
on  the  people  who  compose  the  audience.  It  makes  them 
take  an  interest  as  nothing  else  could  do,  and  educates 
them  on  local  questions  as  no  amount  of  reading,  even 
of  the  fairest  newspaper  accounts,  could  do.  I  do  not 
believe  there  is  a  city  in  the  country  where  the  electorate 
is  so  well  informed  upon  local  political  questions,  nor 
upon  the  rights  of  the  people  as  opposed  to  the  privileges 
of  corporations,  as  it  is  in  Cleveland.  Detroit  and  To- 
ledo probably  come  next.  The  tent  meeting  is  largely 
responsible  for  this  public  enlightenment  of  the  people  of 
Cleveland. 

The  one  disadvantage  of  the  tent  is  that  it  is  not 
weather-proof.  And  yet  it  was  seldom  indeed  that  a  meet- 
ing had  to  be  abandoned  on  account  of  rain.  Great  audi- 
ences came  even  on  rainy  nights  and  our  speakers  have 
frequently  spoken  from  under  dripping  umbrellas  to 
good-natured  crowds,  a  few  individuals  among  them 
protected  by  umbrellas  but  many  sitting  in  the  wet  with 
strange  indifference  to  physical  discomfort. 

At  first  my  enemies  called  my  tent  a  "  circus  menagerie  " 
and  no  part  of  my  political  work  has  been  so  persistently 
cartooned;  but  when  they  employed  tents  somewhat  later 


84  MY  STORY 

they  called  theirs  "  canvas  auditoriums."  The  adoption 
of  the  tent  meeting  by  these  same  enemies  or  their  suc- 
cessors may  not  have  been  intended  either  as  an  endorse- 
ment of  the  method  or  as  a  compliment  to  my  personal 
taste,  but  I  can't  help  considering  it  a  little  of  both. 

In  my  1894  canvass  for  Congress  at  the  first  meeting 
held  in  a  new  tent,  an  incident  occurred  which  brought 
me  into  contact  with  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  resource- 
ful fighters  against  special  privilege  that  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  know. 

The  meeting  had  proceeded  only  a  few  minutes  when 
about  a  third  of  the  audience  set  up  a  call  for  "  Peter 
Witt,"  and  the  name  was  cheered  lustily  two  or  three  times. 

I  had  never  heard  of  Peter  Witt,  but  ten  minutes  later 
in  response  to  my  customary  invitation  for  questions  an 
angry,  earnest  man,  with  flashing  eyes  and  black  locks 
hanging  well  down  on  one  side  of  his  forehead,  rose  in 
the  center  of  the  tent  and  shaking  a  long  finger  at  me  put 
a  question  in  the  most  belligerent  manner  imaginable.  I 
knew  that  the  man  the  audience  had  been  cheering  for 
stood  before  me.  I  disregarded  his  question  and  asked 
with  all  the  friendliness  I  could  summon, 

"Are  you  Mr.  Witt?" 

With  scant  civility  he  half-growled,  half-grunted  an 
affirmative  answer,  and  I  continued, 

"  Since  you  seem  to  have  so  many  friends  here,  and  in 
a  spirit  of  fair  play,  I  would  be  glad  to  share  the  platform 
with  you.  I  do  not  like  to  see  you  at  the  disadvantage  of 
having  to  speak  from  the  audience." 

There  were  mingled  shouts  of  "  Come  on,  come  on !  " 
and  "  Speak  where  you  are !  "  from  the  crowd,  and  the 
angry  young  man  was  literally  forced  to  come  forward. 


SOME  PERSONAL  INCIDENTS  85 

The  time  consumed  and  the  difficulty  encountered  in  stum- 
bling over  camp  chairs  through  the  crowd  and  up  onto  the 
platform  worked  a  change  in  Mr.  Witt's  manner.  Fully 
half  his  steam  had  escaped  and  there  wasn't  much  of 
his  venom  left  when  I  grasped  his  hand.  So  little  of 
kindness  had  come  his  way  that  he  was  not  prepared  for 
the  warm  reception  and  cordial  introduction  to  the  audi- 
ence which  I  gave  him. 

Peter  Witt  was  an  iron  molder  by  trade  and  the  things 
he  had  suffered  because  of  the  brutalities  of  our  indus- 
trial system  had  made  him  hate  the  system  and  long  to 
free  his  fellow  workers  from  its  baneful  power.  His  re- 
ward for  his  struggles,  his  sacrifices  and  his  passionate  de- 
votion to  the  common  good  had  been  —  to  use  one  of  his 
own  expressions  — "  the  blacklist  of  the  criminal  rich  and 
the  distrust  of  the  ignorant  poor." 

Believing  the  Populist  party  offered  more  hope  of  re- 
lief than  any  other  political  organization  he  had  allied 
himself  with  it,  and  I  afterwards  learned  that  the  demon- 
stration in  my  tent  meeting  was  a  preconcerted  plan  on 
the  part  of  the  Populists  to  capture  that  meeting.  They 
didn't  capture  the  meeting,  nor  did  we  capture  the  Popu- 
list orator  for  not  during  that  campaign  did  Witt  let  up 
in  his  fight  against  the  Democratic  ticket,  nor  would  he  ad- 
mit any  change  of  feeling  towards  me  personally.  But  he 
has  fought  with  me,  not  against  me,  in  every  campaign 
I  have  since  been  in,  and  one  of  the  strongest  friendships 
of  my  life  commenced  that  night  when  I  welcomed  Peter 
Witt  to  my  platform.  His  sphere  of  influence  has  wid- 
ened since  then,  and  also  his  circle  of  friends,  for  many 
men,  at  first  repulsed  by  his  seeming  bitterness,  coming 
later  to  understand  his  sterling  qualities,  his  sturdy  hon- 


86  MY  STORY 

esty,  his  unswerving  fidelity  to  principle,  became  his 
friends.  Among  them  he  may  count  some  high  priests 
of  Privilege  for  these  are  human  like  the  rest  of  us  and 
being  human  they  admire  rugged  honesty  and  genuine 
courage  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world. 

The  year  after  I  left  Congress  I  got  rid  of  my  street 
railway  properties  in  Cleveland  and  a  brief  history  of  the 
last  days  of  my  operations  there  is  necessary  to  an  intelli- 
gent understanding  of  the  street  railway  war  which  occu- 
pied Cleveland's  attention  during  most  of  my  nine  years 
as  mayor. 

In  the  latter  part  of  March,  1893,  the  Everett  road, 
the  lines  operated  by  the  Andrews  and  Stanley  interests 
and  our  company  consolidated.  In  April  of  the  same 
year  Mr.  Hanna  took  in  the  cable  road.  All  the 
street  railroads  of  the  city  were  now  in  these  two 
companies.  The  newpapers  called  the  first  the  Big  Con- 
solidated, and  the  second  the  Little  Consolidated  which 
common  parlance  soon  shortened  to  the  Big  Con  and  the 
Little  Con;  and  when  the  Big  Con  and  the  Little  Con 
consolidated  ten  years  later,  in  1903,  the  Concon  was  the 
result. 

The  Big  Con  controlled  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  business 
and  the  Little  Con  forty  per  cent.  In  the  organization 
of  the  Big  Consolidated  I  sided  with  the  Andrews-Stanley 
crowd  in  electing  Horace  Andrews  president  of  the  com- 
pany. The  Everett  interests  would  have  liked  to  elect 
Henry  Everett  to  that  position.  My  brother  Albert  was 
a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  which  I  was  chair- 
man. 

In  the  first  days  of  the  consolidation  when  we  who  had 
been  fighting  each  other  so  long  were  in  daily  communi- 


SOME  PERSONAL  INCIDENTS  87 

cation  and  occupying  the  same  offices  a  good  many  amus- 
ing things  happened.  Mr.  Everett  and  a  man  who  had 
been  associated  with  him  were  having  a  quiet  little  meet- 
ing every  day,  for  instance,  and  seemingly  getting  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure  out  of  some  figures  they  were  examining. 
By  and  by  I  became  curious  to  know  what  these  daily 
meetings  were  about  and  when  I  asked  Mr.  Everett  he 
showed  me  with  great  glee  figures  which  proved  that  their 
property  had  appreciated  in  value  much  more  than  mine 
since  the  consolidation.  The  increased  earnings  were 
coming  from  their  lines,  not  ours.  He  was  quite  jubilant 
about  it. 

"  Aren't  all  the  companies  sharing  equally  in  the  profits 
of  consolidation?  "  I  asked. 

"  Why,  of  course,"  he  answered. 

"  Then,"  I  said,  "  I  don't  see  how  you  have  got  it  on 
us  any.  Your  lines  are  making  the  profits  for  the  others. 
I  guess  I'll  take  your  figures  and  show  'em  to  my  people 
so  they  can  see  just  how  good  a  deal  I  made." 

That  phase  of  the  matter  had  actually  never  occurred 
to  him.  He  didn't  get  any  enjoyment  out  of  comparative 
figures  after  that. 

There  was  always  a  good  deal  of  antagonism  between 
Mr.  Everett  and  me,  and  as  we  held  the  balance  of  power 
either  of  us  could  make  the  other  uncomfortable  by  voting 
with  the  Andrews-Stanley  crowd,  as  I  did  when  I  helped 
elect  Mr.  Andrews  president,  instead  of  voting  for  Mr. 
Everett. 

Once  the  Everett  interests  planned  as  a  joke  that  at 
the  annual  meeting  they  would  see  that  my  election  as  a 
director  was  made  by  a  smaller  vote  than  that  given  for 
any  other  officer.  They  thought  it  would  be  great  fun 


88  MY  STORY 

to  let  me  in  by  the  barest  majority,  thus  making  it  appear 
that  I  was  persona  non  grata  on  the  board.  Somehow  the 
plan  leaked  out  and  I  learned  of  it. 

The  day  of  the  meeting  came.  I  was  on  hand  with  my 
votes,  about  one-third  of  the  whole  number.  When  the 
votes  were  counted  I  had  received  more  than  anybody  else. 

When  it  dawned  upon  the  other  directors  that  I  had 
cast  all  my  votes  for  myself  and  none  for  anybody  else, 
they  made  me  pay  for  my  fun  by  giving  them  a  big  dinner. 
I  put  up  a  dummy  ticket  too  with  Mr.  Everett's  name  at 
the  head  and  distributed  a  few  of  my  votes  on  this  ticket. 
The  newspapers  the  next  day  in  reporting  the  meeting 
said  that  "  the  Everett  ticket  was  badly  beaten  "  and  it 
would  have  taken  more  than  a  dinner  to  appease  the  in- 
dignation this  caused. 

One  day  Mr.  Hanna  came  to  me  and  said,  "  Well, 
Tom,  now  that  you've  all  consolidated,  you  and  I  might 
as  well  take  up  some  old  matters  of  dispute  between  us 
and  get  them  settled." 

"Certainly!"  I  answered,  "that's  a  good  idea.  By 
our  consolidation  agreement  all  disputes  are  to  be  referred 
to  the  president,  so  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  see  your  friend 
Horace  Andrews." 

Mark  Hanna's  methods  were  to  those  of  Horace  An- 
drews as  quicksilver  is  to  winter  molasses.  He  knew  it 
and  he  knew  that  I  knew  it.  He  gave  me  one  look  and 
delivered  himself  vigorously  of  two  words  by  way  of 
reply.  I  understood  his  language.  I  am  quite  sure  those 
differences  he  spoke  of  haven't  been  adjusted  to  this  day. 

I  sold  all  my  Cleveland  street  railway  interests  in  1894 
and  1895  and  never  afterwards  had  any  pecuniary  con- 
nection with  street  railroads  in  that  city. 


X 

THE   LESSONS   OF   MONOPOLY 

THE  thing  I  have  referred  to  as  my  civic  consciousness 
was  deepening.  My  congressional  experiences  had  con- 
firmed me  in  my  belief  that  political  corruption  was  a 
secondary  symptom  and  political  remedy  but  an  opiate 
which  might  disguise  the  symptom  for  an  hour,  or  a  day; 
that  crime  and  vice  and  misery  were  for  the  most  part 
consequences  of  involuntary  poverty,  and  involuntary  pov- 
erty the  result  of  law-made  privilege  whereby  some  men 
get  more  than  they  earn  while  the  vast  mass  of  mankind 
earns  more  than  it  gets.  More  and  more  I  realized  that 
it  was  the  existence  of  this  legalized  privilege  in  society 
which  creates  a  Riverside  drive  in  New  York,  a  Lake 
Shore  boulevard  in  Chicago,  a  Euclid  avenue  in  Cleve- 
land, and  at  the  same  time  an  East  Side  in  New  York, 
a  Canal  street  in  Chicago  and  a  slum  district  in  Cleve- 
land. 

I  was  thinking  a  lot  about  these  things  by  the  time  I 
left  Congress  and  my  business  associates  commenced  to 
complain  of  my  philosophy,  saying  it  was  at  variance  with 
their  interests,  and  that  to  put  it  into  operation  would 
hurt  them.  This  feeling  gradually  extended  from  friends 
and  immediate  associates  to  an  ever  enlarging  group,  gath- 
ering bitterness  as  it  spread  until  the  time  came  when  I 
was  looked  upon  as  a  public  enemy  by  Big  Business.* 

*  Appendix. 

89 


90  MY  STORY 

The  attitude  of  the  Cleveland  Chamber  of  Commerce 
while  I  was  mayor  clearly  illustrates  this.  My  position 
on  any  question  was  all  they  had  to  know  about  it  to 
determine  what  stand  they  should  take.  If  I  was  for  it, 
they  were  against  it.  If  I  was  against  it,  they  were  for 
it.  But  this  never  troubled  me.  When  I  started  out  in 
my  fight  against  Privilege  I  saw  the  road  I  had  to  travel, 
the  obstacles  I  should  have  to  overcome,  the  personal 
abuse  I  should  encounter.  These  things  and  more  I  fore- 
saw and  they  all  came  along  on  scheduled  time. 

In  the  meantime  my  own  business  enterprises  were  grow- 
ing though  I  was  seriously  thinking  of  getting  out  of  all 
of  them.  Our  rail-mill  at  Johnstown  becoming  inade- 
quate for  our  increasing  business  we  decided  to  enlarge  it 
and  add  blast-furnaces  and  blooming-mills  thus  making 
it  a  complete  steel  plant  beginning  with  the  ore  and  ending 
with  the  finished  rail.  There  wasn't  room  for  so  much 
expansion  in  Johnstown,  nor  was  that  the  best  point  for 
assembling  raw  material  and  distributing  the  finished  prod- 
uct. The  improved  blast-furnace  practice  had  carried  the 
economic  point  of  assembly  nearer  to  the  mines,  so  the 
lake  region  now  had  the  advantage  over  Pittsburgh  as  a 
place  of  location  for  such  industries  as  ours.* 

Our  experts  reported  the  largest  tract  of  land  and  the 
best  harbor  available  at  Lorain,  Ohio,  so  we  purchased 
there  seven  square  miles  at  the  mouth  of  the  Black  river. 
This  gave  us  ample  space  for  the  mill  and  left  plenty  of 
land  to  be  influenced  by  increased  values. 

We  built  the  mill  in  terrifically  tight  times  and  had 
been  running  about  a  year  and  a  half  when  the  Federal 
Steel  Company,  the  present  United  States  Steel,  was  be- 

*  Appendix. 


THE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY  91 

ginning  to  be  formed.  Our  financial  embarrassment  was 
so  great  that  we  sold  out  to  the  Federal,  but  too  early  to 
reap  the  large  benefit,  later  developments  showing  that 
a  year's  delay  would  have  meant  many  millions  more  of 
profit.* 

In  addition  to  our  land  speculation,  we  built  a  street 
railroad  ten  miles  long  from  Lorain  to  Elyria,  and  we 
retained  both  the  land  and  the  railroad  when  we  sold  the 
mill. 

My  brother  Albert  and  R.  T.  Wilson  of  New  York, 
a  man  high  up  in  the  business  and  financial  world,  had 
purchased  the  street  railways  of  Detroit,  an  old  broken- 
down  horse  car  system  with  a  few  worn-out  electrically 
equipped  cars.  When  I  was  defeated  for  Congress  they 
knew  I  would  soon  be  free  for  business  again  and  came 
to  me  with  a  proposal  that  I  undertake  the  management 
of  this  road  on  a  profit-sharing  basis.  I  didn't  want  to 
do  it,  told  them  I  was  thinking  of  quitting  business,  but 
they  insisted.  What  finally  induced  me  to  accept  was 
not  so  much  the  pecuniary  reward  which  the  undertaking 
promised,  as  the  chance  to  build  unhampered  by  lack 
of  funds  a  modern  street  railroad  in  a  growing  city. 
This  looked  like  something  worth  doing.  I  con- 
sented to  it  on  certain  conditions  and  that  enterprise  was 
the  beginning  of  a  second  plunge  into  big  business  under- 
takings. 

Hazen  S.  Pingree  was  mayor  of  Detroit  and  though 
I  had  never  met  him  I  admired  him  greatly.  He  was 
promoting  a  three-cent-fare  line  for  the  city  through  Henry 
Everett,  one  of  my  old  enemies.  Privilege  was  putting 
up  a  fight  against  Pingree  which  in  its  essential  features 

*  Appendix. 


92  MY  STORY 

was  much  the  same  as  the  fight  I  was  to  encounter  later 
as  mayor  of  Cleveland. 

I  stipulated  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  my  brother  that  I  was 
not  to  be  expected  to  try  to  defeat  the  mayor's  three- 
cent-fare  project  except  by  improved  facilities  on  our  lines; 
that  is,  I  was  to  so  remodel  our  railroad  that  it  should 
have  the  advantage  on  its  merits,  rather  than  to  go  before 
the  city  council  and  engage  in  a  scramble  and  put  a  lot  of 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  Everett  grant.  Neither  the 
mayor  nor  Mr.  Everett  knew  anything  of  this  agreement 
of  course.  The  latter  had  no  reason  to  expect  any  quarter 
from  me  in  any  contest,  and  there  were  plenty  of  influences 
at  work  to  prejudice  Mayor  Pingree  against  me.  The 
newspapers  added  to  this  prejudice  by  saying  that  I  was 
coming  to  Detroit  to  hypnotize  him  and  nothing  made  him 
so  mad  as  that. 

His  attitude  at  our  first  meeting  was  very  hostile.  When 
he  had  stated  two  or  three  ultimatums  of  street  railway 
policy  to  which  I  agreed  he  was  greatly  surprised  but  still 
skeptical.  As  we  proceeded  to  tear  up  old  tracks  and 
rebuild  the  road  complying  with  the  mayor's  suggestions 
as  to  construction,  doing  the  very  things  the  city  had  been 
unable  to  compel  the  former  owners  to  do  and  asking 
no  favors  in  return  the  mayor  commenced  to  melt  a  little. 
We  spent  six  million  dollars  in  cash  on  that  railroad  and 
the  result  was  the  best  electrically  equipped  street  rail- 
road in  existence  anywhere.  The  credit  for  this  was 
largely  due  to  A.  B.  du  Pont,  the  engineer  in  charge. 
Mr.  du  Pont  is  a  son  of  my  early  employer  Bidermann  du 
Pont. 

When  some  of  the  councilmen  who  were  known  to  be 
friends  of  the  old  system  —  the  one  purchased  by  Mr. 


THE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY  93 

Wilson  and  my  brother  and  comprising  all  the  lines  then 
in  existence  —  told  the  mayor  I  had  advised  them  to  vote 
with  him  for  the  three-cent  grant  and  had  advised  against 
imposing  any  hardship  on  Everett  and  his  friends,  he  was 
thoroughly  mystified. 

When  we  met  he  asked  me  in  his  frank  manly  way  to 
explain  my  attitude.  I  told  him  the  city  needed  additional 
street  railway  facilities,  it  was  evident  our  company  couldn't 
get  any  concessions  and  that  the  new  company  ought  to 
have  them ;  that  my  reason  for  wanting  the  grants  made 
to  the  new  company  on  as  fair  a  basis  as  possible  was 
purely  selfish,  for  it  would  be  only  a  question  of  time 
until  the  old  company  would  acquire  them.  To  impose 
unfair  conditions  in  the  new  grants  would  be  simply  put- 
ting burdens  on  our  own  backs  when  these  lines  came  to  be 
absorbed  by  ours. 

This  amused  the  mayor  and  he  called  my  attention  to 
a  provision  in  the  grant  which  said  that  if  the  new  com- 
pany should  consolidate  with  or  sell  out  to  the  old  the 
grant  became  void.  I  replied  that  notwithstanding  that 
provision  or  any  other  they  could  frame  into  words  noth- 
ing could  prevent  us  from  acquiring  the  other  railroad. 
This  rather  staggered  Mr.  Pingree  and  in  his  childlike 
way  he  said, 

"  Mr.  Johnson,  explain  that  to  me,  won't  you?  " 

"  I  will  not  consolidate  with  the  new  company  or  make 
any  attempt  to  buy,"  I  answered,  "  but  some  day  I  will 
have  a  friend  of  mine  down  in  New  York  or  West  Vir- 
ginia or  somewhere  else,  whom  I  shall  call  Smith  for  con- 
venience, acquire  the  stock  of  the  railroad  by  purchase; 
and,  Mr.  Mayor,  if  you  attempt  to  put  in  a  provision  to 
prevent  my  Smith  or  some  other  Smith  from  doing  this, 


94  MY  STORY 

you  will  simply  defeat  your  own  ends,  for  railroad  stocks 
to  be  useful  must  be  saleable." 

It  gradually  dawned  on  him  that  he  didn't  have  much 
safety  in  his  safeguard  provision  and  he  said  to  me  then 
what  he  said  to  me  many,  many  times  afterwards, 

"  I  have  here  a  clean  sheet  of  paper.  You  tell  me  how 
to  write  this  grant  so  that  you  can't  get  it." 

I  said  there  was  only  one  way  and  that  was  for  the  city 
to  acquire  the  three-cent  line,  own  and  operate  it;  then 
we  could  neither  consolidate,  purchase  nor  have  Smith 
purchase  it.  All  my  subsequent  observation  and  experi- 
ence have  not  enabled  me  to  work  out  any  better  answer 
than  that.  The  mayor  said  that  though  he  believed  in 
municipal  ownership  he  was  doubtful  of  the  powers  con- 
ferred by  the  state  laws  in  this  direction  and  he  feared  the 
inauguration  of  such  a  project  would  arouse  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  business  interests  and  defeat  it. 

The  city  gave  Everett  the  grant.  Everett  built  the 
road.  We  completed  remodeling  the  old  lines  before 
his  was  done  and  when  he  operated  for  three  cents  we 
did  the  same.  We  weren't  in  need  of  money.  Our  enter- 
prise was  financed  and  we  could  stand  the  contest.  Everett 
had  yet  to  raise  the  money  for  his  project.  It  was  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  that  with  our  better  laid-out  system  our 
line  would  first  cripple,  then  acquire  the  three-cent  road. 
In  eight  months  this  was  accomplished  and  I  announced  it 
to  the  mayor  one  day  by  inviting  him  to  take  a  ride  in 
a  private  trolley-car  and  telling  him,  at  the  moment  we 
stepped  onto  the  car  on  the  Everett  line,  that  this  property 
had  just  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  friend  of  mine  named 
Smith. 

We  at  once  raised  the  fare  on  the  old  lines,  the  three- 


THE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY  95 

cent  fare  continued  on  the  other  and  to  this  day  these  two 
lines  are  operated  with  two  rates  of  fare.  It  has  never 
been  possible  to  raise  the  fare  on  the  three-cent  lines. 

It  was  Mayor  Pingree's  promotion  of  that  three-cent- 
fare  line  for  Detroit  that  first  impressed  me  with  the 
practicability  of  this  rate  of  fare.  The  company's  loss 
is  so  slight  compared  to  the  gain  to  the  public  that  where 
the  traffic  is  dense  people  should  insist  upon  the  lower 
fare. 

Before  I  got  through  with  the  Detroit  enterprise  Pin- 
gree  and  I  became  warm  friends.  One  night  after  a 
supper  together  in  my  room  we  talked  for  a  long  time 
over  our  cigars.  An  ordinance  was  pending  granting  our 
lines  a  double  track  privilege  where  there  was  now  a  single 
track.  He  said, 

"  Of  course,  Johnson,  I'm  going  to  veto  that  ordinance 
if  it  passes;  but  I  don't  know  why.  The  people  out  that 
way  all  want  it ;  it  seems  like  a  necessary  improvement,  but 
I'm  against  it.  I  wish  you'd  tell  me  what's  wrong  with 
it." 

I  said  there  wasn't  much  wrong  with  it,  but  that  if  I 
were  a  member  of  the  city  council  I'd  see  Tom  Johnson 
in  the  hot  place  before  I'd  vote  for  it.  Next  day  at  a 
committee  meeting  Pingree  made  a  speech  against  the 
ordinance  and  when  he  said,  "  If  I  tell  you  what  a  man 
said  to  me  last  night  not  one  of  you  will  dare  to  vote  for 
this  measure,"  I  suspected  what  was  coming.  He  re- 
peated my  exact  words  and  appealed  to  me  to  verify 
them,  which  of  course  I  did.  The  ordinance  didn't  get 
a  vote,  not  one. 

If  anybody  but  Pingree  had  done  that  I  should  have 
resented  it.  He  hadn't  promised  not  to  use  my  words 


96  MY  STORY 

against  me,  but  I  never  dreamed  that  he  would  hold  me 
up  to  public  ridicule  in  that  fashion.  Yet  I  couldn't  re- 
sent it  in  him.  He  said  afterwards  that  he  was  in  a 
mighty  tight  place  and  that  he  had  to  do  it  because  he 
didn't  know  what  else  to  do. 

Later  I  cooperated  with  him  in  trying  to  sell  the  whole 
street  railway  system  to  the  city.  Popular  clamor  and 
opposition  to  Pingree  defeated  this.  It  was  claimed  that 
the  price  was  too  high  and  that  I  was  getting  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  mayor.  The  public  did  not  know  that  I 
had  agreed  to  reduce  the  cost  to  the  city  by  such  share  of 
the  purchase  price  as  would  come  to  me  as  my  profit.  It 
would  have  been  useless  to  tell  this.  Nobody  would 
have  believed  it.  I  suppose  there  are  people  who  will  not 
believe  it  now.  But  the  citizens  later  had  the  humilia- 
tion of  seeing  the  property  which  our  company  had  of- 
fered to  the  city  for  fifteen  millions  sold  to  other  private 
interests  for  twenty-five  millions.  Then  Detroit  realized 
the  chance  it  had  missed  and  couldn't  avoid  seeing  that 
I  was  more  interested  in  municipal  ownership  than  I  was 
in  personal  profits  —  a  fact  that  Pingree  knew  all  the 
time.  But  any  attempt  on  our  part  to  have  made  the 
public  believe  this  would  have  brought  ridicule  upon  us, 
so  I  allowed  myself  to  be  misunderstood. 

Pingree  was  charged  with  being  a  political  boss,  but 
he  wasn't  one,  for  a  political  boss  is  a  man  whose  word 
is  his  capital  and  it  must  be  absolutely  good.  Pingree 
was  a  political  idol.  He  was  always  in  a  fight  and  always 
on  the  popular  side.  Thoroughly  honest  and  trustworthy 
except  when  he  was  in  a  political  contest,  then  as  he  said 
of  himself  he  never  hesitated  to  promise  the  same  place 
to  more  than  one  man.  Once  before  a  whole  roomful  of 


HAZEN"   S.    PINGREE 


THE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY  97 

people  he  stated  that  he  was  out  of  ammunition,  for  he 
had  promised  every  job  at  least  twice. 

After  Pingree  became  Governor  I  twitted  him  once  on 
one  of  his  public  messages,  saying : 

"  That's  a  nice  message,  that  is !  There  isn't  a  demo- 
cratic line  in  it."  Instantly  he  came  back  with  this: 

"  Well,  I'll  have  you  know  I'm  a  Republican  Gov- 
ernor." 

At  another  time  when  someone  complained  that  the 
Governor  had  advanced  different  arguments  on  the  same 
public  question  on  two  different  occasions,  he  replied: 

'  You  are  the  most  unreasonable  damn  fool  I  ever  saw. 
Of  course  the  second  argument  isn't  like  the  first  one,  but 
I'll  have  you  understand  I've  changed  secretaries  in  the 
meantime." 

One  of  the  last  things  Pingree  did  was  to  collaborate 
in  the  writing  of  a  book  about  the  Boer  War  which  he 
dedicated  to  me.  It  was  never  published,  but  the  manu- 
script with  his  inscription  was  sent  to  me  after  his  death. 


XI 

MORE   LESSONS   OF  MONOPOLY 

WHILE  they  were  still  interested  in  Detroit,  my  brother, 
with  Mr.  Wilson  and  some  others,  acquired  the  Nassau 
street  railroad  franchise  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  I  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  this  at  first,  but  all  concerned  in  the  own- 
ership wanted  me  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  manage- 
ment and  as  soon  as  I  was  somewhat  free  from  pressing 
matters  in  Detroit  I  joined  them. 

A  very  troublesome  suit  was  pending  in  which  it  was 
charged  that  a  lot  of  Brooklyn  councilmen  had  made  this 
Nassau  grant  ostensibly  in  good  faith,  but  in  reality  to 
someone  who  represented  them.  The  enterprise  was  tak- 
ing on  such  proportions  that  it  was  well  worth  while  to 
employ  the  most  skillful  legal  talent  obtainable,  and  our 
people  engaged  Samuel  B.  Clark  and  Elihu  Root  as  their 
attorneys.  Joseph  H.  Choate  was  later  called  in  to  as- 
sist them. 

After  the  case  had  been  well  worked  up  by  these  law- 
yers, Albert  Johnson  and  Mr.  Wilson,  the  prospective 
purchasers,  put  the  whole  thing  up  to  me  for  a  decision. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  grant  was  clouded  and  that 
litigation  was  likely  to  continue  for  some  time  would  I 
advise  them  to  make  the  investment?  I  replied  that  I 
would;  that  few  street  railroad  grants  were  free  from 
crookedness,  but  to  prove  the  case  was  another  matter. 
I  didn't  believe  it  could  be  proved,  so  my  advice  was  to 

98 


MORE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY          99 

build.  Mr.  Root's  characteristic  comment  on  this,  I  re- 
member, was,  "  No  matter  what  the  decision,  Johnson, 
you  can't  avoid  being  either  a  good  prophet  or  a  good 
adviser." 

The  case  was  dropped  after  the  first  court  decision 
against  the  politician  who  had  brought  the  suit,  and  in 
the  meantime  work  on  the  railroad  was  progressing.  Be- 
fore finishing  its  own  line  the  Nassau  acquired  the  Atlantic 
avenue  system  and  established  the  first  five-cent  fare  from 
Brooklyn  Bridge  to  Coney  Island.  Previous  to  this  the 
fare  had  been  about  twenty-five  cents.  The  five-cent  fare 
was  really  the  beginning  of  the  great  popularity  of  Coney 
Island  and  it  changed  the  character  of  its  patronage. 
People  who  had  been  accustomed  to  go  there  three  or 
four  times  in  a  season,  now  went  several  times  a  week  and 
took  their  families.  The  crowds  steadily  increased,  and 
five-cent  lunches  became  more  popular  than  seventy-five- 
cent  dinners. 

At  this  time  there  were  four  surface  street  railroads 
in  Brooklyn,  the  Brooklyn  Rapid  Transit  being  the 
largest,  the  Nassau  system  next.  In  addition  to  these 
surface  lines  there  were  an  elevated  road  and  a  munici- 
pally owned  and  operated  line  on  Brooklyn  Bridge.  The 
municipal  line  was  a  mile  and  a  half  long  from  the  Park 
Row  terminal  on  the  New  York  side  to  the  Brooklyn 
terminal  near  the  business  center  of  the  city.  The  fare 
for  this  mile  and  a  half  was  two  and  a  half  cents.  This 
was  the  first  case  of  municipal  ownership  of  a  city  trans- 
portation line  in  this  country  and  was  the  most  efficient 
so  far  as  the  public  was  concerned  of  any  line  in  existence 
before  or  since. 

The  management  was  vested  in  the  Bridge  authorities 


ioo  MY  STORY 

appointed  by  the  two  cities.  Now  here  was  a  commission 
appointed  by  two  notoriously  corrupt  city  governments 
yet  performing  its  various  duties  with  absolute  fidelity  to 
the  public.  Why?  Because  the  enterprise  was  oper- 
ating under  the  daily  observation  of  the  persons  most 
interested  in  it.  Between  a  privately  operated  enterprise 
and  one  publicly  operated  the  people  will  always  insist 
upon  a  higher  degree  of  efficiency  in  the  latter.  This  was 
strikingly  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  Municipal  Trac- 
tion Company's  operations  in  Cleveland  a  few  years  later. 
The  people  soon  become  disheartened  and  give  up  the 
fight  in  trying  to  get  good  service  from  a  private  com- 
pany. 

And  between  two  public  enterprises,  one  under  the  eye 
of  the  people  and  the  other  removed  from  their  obser- 
vation, the  one  they  have  closest  contact  with  will  be  held 
to  higher  standards.  For  example,  witness  the  placid 
indifference  with  which  the  ordinary  citizen  regards  a  one 
hundred  thousand  dollar  robbery  of  customs  receipts,  and 
by  contrast  his  virtuous  wrath  if  by  chance  his  postman 
happens  to  be  late  three  days  in  succession.  He  doesn't 
mind  being  robbed  indirectly  and  at  long  range,  but  he 
will  have  his  mail  delivered  at  the  same  time  each  day  or 
know  the  reason  why.  What's  the  postoffice  for  anyway? 

The  history  of  the  city  ownership  and  operation  of 
those  tracks  on  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  if  properly  studied 
will  completely  answer  the  objections  raised  by  opponents 
of  municipally  owned  and  managed  street  railways. 

The  cheapest  fare  between  New  York  and  any  part  of 
Brooklyn  at  this  time  was  seven  and  one-half  cents,  the  city 
getting  two  and  one-half,  as  has  been  stated,  and  the  sur- 


MORE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY        101 

face  lines  five  cents,  though  to  any  of  the  suburbs  of 
Brooklyn  it  cost  more  than  that. 

The  Nassau  people  urged  the  building  of  a  surface  line 
across  the  Bridge  on  the  roadway,  giving  two  surface 
tracks  in  addition  to  the  two  elevated  tracks  already  in 
use.  All  four  of  the  surface  car  systems  wanted  to  cross 
the  bridge  if  any  one  of  them  was  going  to  do  so  and 
they  chose  me  to  represent  them  in  an  effort  to  get  a  fran- 
chise. I  was  instructed  to  procure  a  franchise  for  not  less 
than  twenty  years.  I  made  my  application  to  the  Bridge 
authorities.  They  said  they  would  not  think  of  granting 
a  franchise  for  more  than  ten  years  at  the  longest. 

I  reported.  All  the  companies  except  ours  demurred. 
The  others  hesitated  about  spending  so  much  money  for 
so  short  a  grant.  I  told  them  I  would  try  again,  but  that 
I  felt  it  was  so  important  to  get  a  five-cent  fare  into  op- 
eration between  New  York  and  Brooklyn  in  view  of  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  latter  city,  that  I  was  in  favor  of  ac- 
cepting the  ten-year  grant.  I  was  accordingly  instructed 
to  go  ahead  and  get  it ;  but  when  I  had  my  next  interview 
with  the  Bridge  officials  they  said  they  had  changed  their 
minds  and  didn't  think  they  cared  to  make  a  grant  for 
so  long  a  time  as  ten  years.  I  went  back  to  my  people 
then  and  reported  that  for  my  own  company  I  was  going 
to  take  anything  I  could  get;  that  if  the  grant  was  a  pub- 
lic benefit  it  would  continue;  if  it  wasn't  it  ought  to  end. 
I  don't  think  the  last  argument  made  much  impression  on 
them,  but  the  prospect  of  seeing  our  cars  running  over 
the  bridge  with  a  through  fare  of  five  cents,  while  passen- 
gers from  all  other  lines  would  have  to  change  at  the 
bridge  and  pay  seven  and  one-half  cents  did,  and  it  moved 


102  MY  STORY 

them  to  agree  to  take  for  their  companies  anything  I  could 
get  for  ours. 

Of  course  I  wasn't  very  particular  whether  they  moved 
or  stayed.  A  grant  that  would  take  us  over  and  leave 
them  behind  wouldn't  be  a  bad  thing  for  the  Nassau. 
Finally  on  behalf  of  the  four  companies  I  accepted  a 
grant  that  could  be  terminated  by  telephone  or  other  mes- 
sage from  the  Bridge  authorities.  This  grant,  which  we 
sometimes  referred  to  as  our  "  ten  minute  franchise,"  was 
really  just  as  good  a  grant  as  any  company  ought  to  have, 
and  in  this  case  it  proved  very  lucrative,  although  it  de- 
stroyed the  city's  street  railroad,  which  property  was 
finally  operated  by  the  Elevated  Company.  The  real 
weakness  in  the  city's  case  was  that  it  had  already  given 
away  all  the  surface  road  and  elevated  rights  in  Brook- 
lyn. If  all  these  facilities  could  have  been  operated  by 
the  city  by  the  same  efficient  public  management  that  had 
prevailed  on  the  Bridge  for  so  long,  a  most  admirable 
municipal  system  would  have  been  the  result. 

The  surface  tracks  were  laid  across  Brooklyn  Bridge 
and  completed  December  18,  1897,  and  my  brother  Al- 
bert ran  the  first  car  over  them  on  the  last  night  of  that 
year. 

In  1898  E.  H.  Harriman  became  interested  in  acquir- 
ing the  Nassau  property.  He  was  not  so  large  a  steam 
railroad  operator  at  that  time  and  really  wanted  the  Nas- 
sau road  for  the  Brooklyn  Rapid  Transit  Company.  He 
was  chosen  as  the  expert  negotiator  for  his  side  and  I 
served  in  the  same  capacity  for  ours.  We  had  a  long 
and  bitter  contest  and  the  result  many  times  appeared  very 
doubtful.  I  got  to  know  him  very  well  and  our  rela- 
tions, though  hostile  at  first,  became  more  than  friendly 


MORE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY        103 

and  led  to  Mr.  Harriman's  suggesting  more  than  once  that 
I  join  him  in  a  wider  field. 

The  final  scene  in  these  negotiations  is  worth  describing, 
as  it  illustrates  so  admirably  the  degree  of  confidence  in 
which  large  business  interests  hold  each  other.  There 
were  seven  main  holdings  representing  the  Nassau  and  its 
purchases  and  each  of  these  in  turn  was  split  up  among 
various  ownerships.  It  was  necessary  to  change  the  per- 
sonnel of  many  boards  of  directors  and  to  change  the 
character  of  many  kinds  of  securities,  and  if  a  hitch  should 
occur  in  any  of  these  steps  it  would  prove  very  embar- 
rassing. Nobody  had  sufficient  confidence  in  anybody 
else  to  allow  this  to  be  done  by  piecemeal.  It  had  to  be 
done  all  at  once  or  not  at  all. 

After  months  of  negotiation  a  time  was  fixed  for  the 
transfer  of  the  property,  the  delivery  of  certified  checks, 
stocks  and  bonds,  the  reorganization  of  many  boards  of 
directors,  changes  of  officers  and  many  important  transac- 
tions that  had  to  be  done  ostensibly  in  a  certain  sequence 
of  time,  but  in  reality  instantaneously  on  account  of  the 
total  lack  of  confidence  among  the  distinguished  gentle- 
men involved  in  the  enterprise. 

A  room  in  the  Empire  Building  was  engaged  for  the 
day  or  as  much  longer  as  it  should  be  needed.  Banks 
and  trust  companies  had  been  notified.  All  securities  and 
certified  checks  had  been  previously  presented  to  and 
initialed  by  the  party  who  was  to  receive  them,  so  that  in 
the  final  exchange  this  work  of  verification  was  saved. 
Representatives  of  the  banks  and  trust  companies,  the 
lawyers  of  the  various  interests,  the  numerous  boards  of 
directors,  the  delegates  generally  of  the  enterprises  in- 
volved, and  a  handsome  important-looking  man  named 


io4  MY  STORY 

Vorhees,  were  finally  all  assembled  In  this  one  room. 
Here  around  a  great  circular  table  sat  the  leaders  of  the 
seven  interests  with  their  associates  grouped  back  of  them, 
—  as  fine  a  band  of  pirates  as  ever  cut  a  throat  or  scut- 
tled a  ship. 

Much  time  was  lost  in  the  last  three  hours  in  settling 
an  unforeseen  dispute  which  arose  late  in  the  proceedings. 
Finally  the  lawyers  announced  that  all  was  ready.  Then 
there  was  a  sort  of  roll  call  in  which  all  papers  which 
were  to  be  exchanged  were  called  aloud  and  checked  off. 
This  done,  Mr.  Vorhees  suddenly  became  the  most  im- 
portant figure  in  the  room.  Looking  wise,  saying  noth- 
ing and  knowing  less,  he  executed  a  contract  agreeing  to 
buy  all  of  this  property,  involving  some  thirty  million  dol- 
lars, and  then  another  in  which  he  sold  everything  he  had 
just  bought.  He  performed  very  much  the  office  that  a 
stock  exchange  does  when  it  enables  people  to  make  big 
trades  while  concealing  the  identity  of  the  principals  and 
preventing  their  meeting,  thus  obviating  possible  litiga- 
tion. He  looked  so  handsome,  his  manner  was  so  im- 
pressive and  his  compensation  so  moderate  that  I  hesitate 
to  apply  a  harsh  name  to  him.  Yet  he  was  in  truth  a 
legal  dummy.  But  he  was  important,  fully  as  important 
and  knew  quite  as  much  about  what  was  taking  place  as 
the  policeman  who  guarded  the  door.  For  the  brief 
space  of  a  few  seconds  Vorhees  was  the  owner  of  a  thirty- 
million-dollar  property,  but  of  course  the  door  was  locked. 
It  was  not  locked  because  of  Vorhees,  but  because  of  the 
high  regard  in  which  the  gentlemen  doing  this  business 
held  each  other.  It  had  been  announced  that  nobody 
would  be  permitted  to  leave  the  room  until  every  interest 
had  received  and  acknowledged  what  it  was  entitled  to, 


MORE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY        105 

and  the  announcement  was  accompanied  by  the  locking  of 
the  doors. 

The  currents  and  counter-currents  represented  in  that 
transaction  were  not  known  to  any  one  person,  certainly 
not  to  the  brokers  or  to  the  lawyers.  Nobody  knew  all 
the  subdivisions  of  ownership.  The  way  we  did  this 
business  was  the  only  practical  way  in  which  it  could  have 
been  carried  out. 

No  one  had  any  interest  now  in  what  he  had  had, 
the  whole  interest  centered  on  what  he  was  to  get. 
After  the  reorganization  of  the  boards  of  directors,  the 
selection  of  new  officers  for  the  various  companies,  the 
delivery  of  certified  checks  and  securities,  there  was  an- 
other roll  call  and  each  was  asked,  "  Have  you  received 
what  your  interest  is  entitled  to?  "  After  everybody  had 
answered  in  the  affirmative  the  doors  were  opened  and 
Mr.  Vorhees  departed  with  the  thanks  of  his  colleagues 
for  his  great  courtesy  and  the  masterful  manner  in  which 
he  had  conducted  the  transaction. 

For  our  securities  I  received  quite  a  handful  of  certified 
checks  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  each  in  denom- 
ination. These  I  had  previously  presented  at  the  bank 
to  ascertain  that  they  were  genuine  and  all  I  had  to  do  in 
the  final  accounting  was  to  examine  my  own  initials  on 
them. 

Banks  and  trust  companies  remained  open  long  after 
midnight  to  receive  our  deposits  and  lock  up  our  impor- 
tant papers.  The  transfer  was  now  complete.  Some  of 
us  knew  what  effect  the  transaction  would  have  on  cer- 
tain stocks  and  improved  our  opportunities  by  judicious 
stock  purchases  the  minute  the  stock  exchange  opened  in 
the  morning. 


io6  MY  STORY 

While  I  was  interested  with  a  lot  of  people  who  were 
accustomed  to  deal  in  rather  big  transactions,  and  during 
a  time  of  great  business  depression,  I  received  a  call  from 
Mr.  Wilson  one  night  long  after  midnight.  He  came  to 
my  room  at  the  Waldorf  in  New  York  and  asked  me  to 
forgive  him  for  waking  me,  but  said  he  was  in  a  state  of 
terrible  depression  and  felt  that  he  must  have  me  talk  to 
him  and  cheer  him  up.  We  chatted  for  some  time  on  va- 
rious topics  and  when  I  had  finally  succeeded  in  getting 
him  into  a  more  tranquil  frame  of  mind,  I  asked  him  why 
he  didn't  give  up  business  since  it  worried  him  so  exces- 
sively. He  was  worth  many  millions  and  with  his  simple 
tastes  couldn't  spend  his  income. 

"  Yes,  yes,"  he  said,  "  I  ought  to  stop  business.  I 
know  it  and  I've  tried  it.  My  family  seems  to  get  some 
enjoyment  out  of  life  and  I  ought  to.  But  I  can't  —  not 
away  from  the  office.  I  have  stayed  away  for  weeks  at 
a  time  as  a  trial,  and  then  I  get  so  blue  that  I  have  to  rush 
back.  Then  after  I've  been  at  the  grind  awhile  I  am 
overwhelmed  with  the  awfulness  of  it  all,  as  I  was  to- 
night when  I  had  to  come  down  here  to  see  you." 

"  Well,'*  I  answered,  "  if  you  will  play  the  game, 
you've  got  to  take  the  thumps."  He  answered  that  he 
saw  no  relief  in  any  course  he  could  now  take. 

That  incident  set  me  to  thinking  seriously  of  my  half- 
formed  resolution  to  give  up  business.  I  asked  myself 
whether  it  was  possible  if  I  continued  in  it  that  I  should 
come  to  be  possessed  with  the  insanity  of  it  as  this  un- 
happy old  man  was.  Would  it  become  a  habit  with  me, 
like  a  drug?  Would  I  find  myself  powerless  to  give  it 
up,  as  the  gambler  is  powerless  to  stay  away  from  his 
games?  I  was  young  and  strong  and  I  dearly  loved  the 


MORE  LESSONS  OF  MONOPOLY        107 

stimulation  that  went  with  the  fight.  But  I  decided  that 
I  must  get  that  stimulation  some  other  way.  I  knew  I 
"  was  as  other  men  "  and  I  foresaw  that  in  the  end  busi- 
ness would  control  my  destiny;  that  I  should  not  rule  it, 
but  that  it  would  rule  me.  No,  much  as  I  enjoyed  the 
game,  I  wasn't  willing  to  take  the  thumps,  and  having 
reached  this  decision  I  threw  all  my  energies  into  my  ef- 
forts to  get  out  of  the  various  things  I  was  engaged  in. 
This  sounds  easier  than  it  was,  and  I  never  did  get  out  en- 
tirely, but  from  the  night  of  that  old  financier's  visit  I 
never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  I  must  give  up  the  money- 
making  game.  I  retired  from  the  Nassau  and  Detroit  in- 
terests at  about  the  same  time,  and  it  was  within  a  few 
months  of  this  that  we  sold  the  Lorain  mill. 

I  was  now  prepared  to  devote  myself  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  principles  advocated  by  Mr.  George.  I 
wanted  to  see  those  principles  put  into  practice.  My  tem- 
perament and  training  made  it  impossible  for  me  to  take 
up  the  academic  promotion  of  the  question,  and  my  future 
activities  were  as  greatly  misunderstood  and  criticized 
by  some  of  the  doctrinaires  of  the  George  school,  as  by 
my  political  enemies.  I  "  got  it  "  both  going  and  coming. 

I  understood  pretty  thoroughly  the  lessons  which  Priv- 
ilege teaches  before  I  took  up  the  question  on  the  other 
side;  I  had  some  idea  of  what  the  fight  would  cost  me, 
but  I  embarked  in  this  new  field  from  purely  selfish  mo- 
tives. I  was  seeking  happiness  and  I  chose  the  line  of 
least  resistance.  All  my  public  doings  are  to  be  ac- 
counted for  in  this  way. 


XII 

ELECTED  MAYQR  OF  CLEVELAND 

CHANCE  plays  a  much  greater  part  in  most  men's  lives 
than  they  are  willing  to  admit.  It  was  certainly  chance 
that  made  me  a  monopolist,  chance  that  put  a  copy  of  one 
of  Henry  George's  books  into  my  hands  and  opened  my 
eyes  to  the  great  gulf  that  is  fixed  between  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  Privilege  and  its  victims,  chance  that  sent  me 
to  Congress,  chance  that  brought  me  into  contact  with 
Mayor  Pingree  and  his  three-cent-fare  crusade,  chance 
that  sent  old  Mr.  Wilson  to  my  room  at  the  Waldorf 
that  winter  night  and  caused  me  to  give  up  the  game  of 
business  for  the  game  of  life,  and  again  it  was  chance 
that  made  me  a  candidate  for  mayor  of  Cleveland. 

As  soon  as  I  had  completed  the  sale  of  the  Lorain 
steel  plant  and  of  the  Nassau  and  Detroit  street  railways, 
my  brother  and  his  family  and  I,  with  my  family,  went  to 
Europe  to  spend  the  summer.  I  came  home  to  attend 
as  a  delegate  the  national  Democratic  Convention  at  Kan- 
sas City,  where  Mr.  Bryan  was  nominated  for  the  second 
time. 

Knowing  that  I  never  accepted  the  "  sixteen  to  one  " 
doctrine  some  people  were  disposed  to  question  the  con- 
sistency and  propriety  of  my  support  of  Mr.  Bryan  in 
1896,  and  to  excuse  it  in  1900  on  the  ground  that  the 
money  question  was  a  dead  issue.*  I  worked  with  those 

*  Appendix. 

108 


ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND  109 

who  accepted  Mr.  Bryan's  doctrine  because  I  believed  that 
the  free  silver  fight  was  the  first  great  protest  of  the 
American  people  against  monopoly  —  the  first  great 
struggle  of  the  masses  in  our  country  against  the  priv- 
ileged classes.  It  was  not  free  silver  that  frightened  the 
plutocratic  leaders.  What  they  feared  then,  what  they 
fear  now,  is  free  men.  The  money  question  was  not  a 
dead  issue  in  1900  and  so  long  as  Wall  street  interests 
dictate  our  financial  policies  the  money  question  cannot 
die. 

On  January  8,  1901,  I  spoke  at  a  Jackson  Day  ban- 
quet in  the  Kennard  House,  Cleveland,  and  announced 
that  I  was  now  practically  free  from  business  and  in- 
tended to  devote  my  life  to  politics.  I  said  that  I  would 
not  be  a  candidate  for  any  office,  but  would  fight  in  the 
ranks  for  the  principles  of  democracy.  A  little  more  than 
a  month  later  I  was  nominated  for  mayor.  On  February 
i,  a  delegation  of  fifty  Democrats  called  on  me  at  my 
home  and  presented  me  with  a  petition  signed  by  15,682 
names  asking  me  to  become  a  candidate.  It  would  have 
been  cowardly  for  me  to  refuse  to  run  simply  because  I 
had  publicly  announced  that  I  had  no  intention  of  doing  so. 

Harris  R.  Cooley  was  one  of  that  delegation  and  made 
a  speech.  Mr.  Cooley  was  the  pastor  of  the  Cedar  avenue 
Disciple  church  of  which  I  was  a  member,  and  together 
we  had  been  through  a  church  fight,  in  which  the  issue 
was  the  admission  to  membership  of  persons  who  had 
been  baptized  other  than  by  immersion.  It  isn't  neces- 
sary to  state  which  side  we  were  on.  We  carried  our 
point. 

When  I  became  mayor  it  seemed  the  most  natural  thing 
in  the  world  that  I  should  appoint  as  director  of  charities 


no  MY  STORY 

this  minister  whom  I  had  known  so  long  and  whom  I 
knew  to  be  so  well  qualified.  Yet  to  this  day  and  in  the 
face  of  the  international  fame  which  Mr.  Cooley  won  in 
his  nine  years'  administration  of  Cleveland's  correctional 
and  charitable  institutions  I  am  sometimes  asked  how  I 
happened  to  appoint  a  "  preacher  "  to  so  important  an 
office. 

The  newspapers  so  persistently  called  me  "  Tom  L. 
Johnson  of  New  York  "  then  that  it  was  seldom  that  even 
the  smallest  item  of  news  in  connection  with  my  activities 
got  into  the  papers  without  it  being  made  to  appear  that 
I  was  simply  pretending  that  Cleveland  was  my  residence 
(although  I  had  never  missed  voting  there  since  my  first 
race  for  Congress),  and  my  interest  in  politics  for  other 
than  personal  reasons  was  scouted  on  all  sides.  First  the 
newspapers  insisted  that  I  wanted  to  go  to  Congress  again 
and  when  this  finally  had  to  be  dropped  because  I  refused 
to  consider  a  nomination,  then  they  were  sure  it  was  the 
United  States  Senate  on  which  my  ambitious  eyes  were 
fixed.  How  they  did  ring  the  changes  on  that !  All  the 
newspapers  in  Cleveland  joined  in  circulating  these  re- 
ports. 

I  was  by  no  means  an  acceptable  candidate  to  all  the 
Democrats,  most  of  those  holding  office  being  especially 
opposed  to  me,  and  I  supposed  I  would  have  to  contest 
the  nomination,  but  there  were  no  other  candidates  and  I 
was  nominated  at  the  Democratic  primaries,  February  19, 
1901. 

Some  support  doubtless  came  to  me  from  partisan  poli- 
ticians who  hoped  that  I  would  put  a  lot  of  money  into 
the  campaign.  I  had  spent  money  very  freely  in  my  con- 
gressional campaigns,  but  now  the  Garfield  Corrupt  Prac- 


ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND     in 

tices  Act  was  on  the  statute  books.  This  law  provided  that 
no  candidate  should  spend  more  than  one-tenth  of  the 
yearly  salary  attached  to  the  office  for  which  he  was  run- 
ning and  further  stipulated  that  he  must  make  a  public 
statement  of  his  campaign  expenses.  I  determined  to  ob- 
serve this  law  in  spirit  as  well  as  in  letter  and  so  made 
no  indirect  expenditures  eithe,r.  I  never  bought  a  lottery 
ticket,  a  ticket  to  any  church  or  social  gathering,  I  refused 
to  subscribe  to  benefit  funds,  I  didn't  even  give  to  beggars 
while  I  was  running  for  office.  Entering  into  this  practice 
because  I  wanted  to  observe  the  limitations  imposed  by  law, 
I  found  it  worked  so  well  that  I  made  it  a  cast  iron  rule  and 
adhered  to  it  in  all  my  subsequent  campaigns,  even  after 
the  Garfield  law  had  been  repealed. 

This  was  high  moral  ground,  adopted  as  I  have  shown, 
partly  because  it  was  necessary,  partly  because  it  was  ex- 
pedient. It  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  those  who  had 
hoped  that  I  would  "  open  a  barrel,"  as  it  was  vulgarly 
styled  by  the  newspapers.  It  was  not  until  later,  after 
my  public  work  had  developed  in  me  a  stronger  sense  of 
appreciation  of  political  morality  that  I  myself  realized 
the  importance  of  such  standards  in  politics. 

I  am  frequently  asked  by  my  friends,  "  Why  did  so  and 
so  change  towards  you?"  mentioning  someone  who  was 
with  me  in  the  early  days  of  my  political  career  and  who 
later  withdrew  his  support.  To  such  I  frequently  reply 
that  I  think  the  change  has  been  not  so  much  in  these 
others  as  in  me.  I  did  not  feel  so  keenly  about  the  spoils 
system  at  first,  for  example,  though  in  the  very  beginning 
when  a  party  of  City  Hall  employes  called  upon  me  and 
asked  me  to  promise,  in  exchange  for  their  support,  that 
I  would  continue  them  in  their  jobs  if  I  were  elected  I  de- 


ii2  MY  STORY 

clined  to  do  so.  When  they  asked  me  to  pledge  myself 
to  dismiss  all  Republicans  holding  jobs,  I  answered  that 
that  was  one  thing  I  would  make  a  promise  about;  I'd 
promise  to  agree  to  do  nothing  of  the  kind. 

My  platform  declared  against  granting  extensions  of 
franchises  to  the  street  railroads  at  any  fare  higher  than 
three  cents,  for  public  improvements  and  for  equal  taxa- 
tion. Of  course,  what  I  wanted  to  convey  to  the  people 
in  my  platform  was  what  I  have  been  trying  to  make  them 
understand  ever  since,  that  the  city  with  its  privileges  and 
its  responsibilities  is  their  city,  that  it  is  as  much  their 
home  in  the  collective  sense  as  the  houses  in  which  they 
live  are  their  individual  homes.  As  I  had  done  when 
running  for  Congress,  I  proclaimed  that  it  was  my  belief 
in  Henry  George's  philosophy  that  had  drawn  me  into 
politics. 

Most  of  my  time  in  the  campaign  was  spent  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  street  car  question  and  the  unjust  appraisal 
of  real  property  made  in  the  summer  of  the  year  before 
and  which,  under  the  state  law,  was  to  stand  for  ten  years. 
I  promised  the  people  that  in  the  event  of  my  election  I 
would  do  everything  in  my  power  to  right  this  great 
wrong. 

Between  grafting  contractors  and  an  unequal  appraisal 
of  property  the  evils  of  the  unjust  appraisal  are  much  the 
greater.  The  graft  of  the  contractor  is  practically  insig- 
nificant. It  includes  a  few  conniving  officials  outside  of 
the  law;  but  an  unequal  appraisal  of  property  for  the 
purposes  of  taxation  takes  dollars  out  of  the  pocket  of 
one  citizen  and  puts  them  into  the  pocket  of  another  and 
is  larceny  of  the  State  for  private  graft. 

There  was  some  discussion  also  over  the  controversy 


ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND     113 

the  city  was  having  with  the  steam  railroads  over  the  pos- 
session of  certain  land  on  the  lake  front.  As  a  citizen  I 
had  brought  suit  to  prevent  the  then  mayor,  John  Farley, 
from  signing  an  ordinance  passed  by  a  crooked  council 
settling  the  controversy  and  conveying  the  land  in  ques- 
tion to  the  railroads  without  compensation. 

The  founders  of  the  city,  wise  in  their  day  and  genera- 
tion, had  set  apart  land  on  the  lake  front  to  be  used  as  a 
public  wharf  and  landing  place  for  the  commerce  of  the 
great  lakes.  In  the  'forties  the  city  had  sold  to  the  Penn- 
sylvania and  other  steam  railroads  a  strip  of  this  ground 
then  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  wide.  The  litigation 
which  had  been  going  on  for  years  was  over  several  hun- 
dred feet  of  "  made  land,"  the  accretions  to  the  strip  the 
railroads  had  purchased,  and  on  which  the  union  depot 
and  yards  are  located.  The  land  was  estimated  to  be 
worth  from  fifteen  to  twenty  million  dollars  at  the  time 
I  brought  my  suit  to  enjoin  the  city  from  settling  and  it 
has  increased  enormously  in  value  since. 

The  people  were  deeply  interested  in  this  controversy 
and  the  fact  that  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  supported  the 
settlement  proposed  by  the  Farley  administration  added 
to  the  existing  feeling  of  outrage.  The  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  made  up  of  fifteen  hundred  business  men,  has 
its  policy  determined  by  Big  Business  which  controls  this 
and  similar  institutions.  In  contests  between  the  people 
and  Privilege  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  was  with  Priv- 
ilege and  against  the  people  on  every  question  which  came 
up  while  I  was  mayor. 

After  I  was  nominated  the  Plain  Dealer,  an  independent 
newspaper,  supported  me,  dropping  the  cartoons  which 
had  so  persistently  pictured  me  as  leaving  the  duties  of  the 


n4  MY  STORY 

mayor's  office  to  someone  else,  and  ceased  calling  me  Tom 
Johnson  of  New  York.  The  Press,  also  independent, 
gave  fair  news  reports  of  my  meetings  and  a  lukewarm 
editorial  support,  while  the  Leader,  the  regular  Repub- 
lican organ,  opposed  me  bitterly. 

I  pursued  the  same  methods  I  had  employed  in  my 
congressional  campaigns,  holding  meetings  in  tents  and 
halls  and  always  inviting  questions  from  my  auditors.  I 
challenged  my  Republican  opponent,  W.  J.  Akers,  to  de- 
bate with  me  or  appoint  someone  to  represent  him  in  de- 
bate, but  no  attention  was  ever  paid  to  this.  Congress- 
man Theodore  Burton,  true  to  his  promise  to  devote  some 
time  to  the  Republican  committee,  in  case  I  should  be  the 
Democratic  nominee  for  mayor,  came  home  from  Wash- 
ington to  make  speeches  against  me. 

Cleveland  was  nominally  a  Republican  city,  but  in  mu- 
nicipal elections,  party  lines  were  usually  shattered  in  the 
interests  of  Privilege.  There  were  Hanna  Democrats  as 
well  as  Hanna  Republicans  —  not  that  Hanna  was  the 
enthroned  boss  in  the  same  sense  that  Cox  is  the  boss  of 
Cincinnati  or  Murphy  of  New  York.  Cleveland  wasn't 
bossed  by  any  one  man.  The  city  government  belonged 
to  the  business  interests  generally,  but  as  the  public  utility 
companies  had  more  use  for  it  than  the  other  kinds  of 
business  enterprise  had,  they  paid  the  most  attention  to  it. 
They  nominated  and  elected  the  councilmen  and  of  course 
the  councilmen  represented  them  instead  of  the  community. 
The  campaign  funds  came  largely  from  business  men  who 
believed  in  a  "  business  man's  government,"  and  who 
couldn't  or  wouldn't  see  that  there  was  anything  radically 
wrong  with  the  system.  They  were  quite  contented  to 


ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND  115 

let  a  few  agents  of  special  privilege  attend  to  the  details 
of  the  city  government.  Nothing  very  shocking  hap- 
pened and  the  community  was  quiescent.  And  in  that  fact 
lay  the  danger.  Nothing  is  so  deadly  as  inertia.  The 
greatest  obstacle  to  overcome  in  any  fight  in  which  funda- 
mental moral  issues  are  involved  is  not  opposition,  but  in- 
difference. To  be  sure  there  were  a  few  agitators  who 
had  raised  the  voice  of  protest  upon  occasion  —  there  was 
Peter  Witt,  and  before  Peter,  Dr.  Tuckerman,  who  was 
responsible  for  Peter.  When  Cleveland  shall  ultimately 
have  become  a  free  city  she  will  trace  the  beginnings  of 
her  struggle  against  Privilege  back  to  the  days  when  that 
kindly  country  doctor  began  to  wage  war  on  the  estab- 
lished order. 

The  campaign  grew  more  interesting  and  exciting  daily, 
but  Privilege  wasn't  especially  aroused  and  made  no  par- 
ticular fight.  Indeed  Big  Business  was  rather  friendly 
than  otherwise.  Some  of  its  beneficiaries  who  had  been 
associated  with  me  in  business  were  reported  as  giving 
their  reason  for  favoring  my  candidacy  "  that  here  was  a 
chance  to  get  good  government  and  a  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollar  man  for  mayor  at  six  thousand  dollars  a  year." 
They  looked  upon  it  as  a  good  bargain.  Senator  Hanna 
did  not  share  this  view.  I  have  previously  stated  that  I 
understood  his  language.  He  likewise  understood  mine, 
and  though  he  sometimes  applied  to  me  such  terms  as 
"  socialist,  nihilist  and  anarchist,"  he  was  never  one  of 
those  who  professed  to  believe  that  I  did  not  mean  to  do 
what  I  said  I  would  do.  From  the  beginning  he  regarded 
my  election  as  dangerous  and  warned  his  friends  against 
me.  He  was  making  a  pretty  fair  guess  at  what  good 


n6  MY  STORY 

government  in  this  instance  would  cost  special  privilege 
in  general  and  his  street  railroad  in  particular,  and  he 
wasn't  taking  any  chances. 

In  the  last  days  of  the  campaign  his  street  railway 
company  attempted  to  rush  a  twenty-five  year  franchise 
through  council.  The  city  was  up  in  arms  against  this 
and,  though  the  Little  Consolidated  had  the  votes  and 
the  mayor  was  ready  to  sign,  council  didn't  dare  to  pass 
the  ordinance.  So  corrupt  was  the  council  and  so  great 
the  storm  occasioned  by  the  proposal  that  even  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  was  forced  to  oppose  it. 

One  night  when  I  was  so  hoarse  from  continued  speak- 
ing that  I  could  not  use  my  voice  it  occurred  to  me  that 
here  was  my  opportunity  to  attend  a  Republican  meeting 
and  hear  for  myself  just  what  the  opposition  was  saying. 
I  arrived  at  the  first  meeting  while  Mr.  Burton  was  speak- 
ing and  the  doorkeeper,  recognizing  me,  refused  to  admit 
me,  saying  that  he  was  acting  under  official  orders,  so  I 
went  to  a  second,  where  it  happened  there  was  no  door- 
keeper. I  was  accompanied  by  five  friends  and  we  walked 
in  and  took  seats  without  being  observed.  Presently  the 
chairman  of  the  meeting  saw  me,  stopped  the  speaker  in 
the  midst  of  his  speech  and  requested  me  to  leave  the  hall. 
I  replied  that  I  had  supposed  this  was  a  public  meeting, 
but  if  he  wished  me  to  go  I  would  do  so,  having  no  desire 
to  intrude.  He  answered  that  it  was  a  Republican  meet- 
ing and  that  he  did  wish  me  to  leave.  The  instinct  of  the 
crowd  is  always  for  fair  play  under  such  circumstances 
and  of  course  a  great  hubbub  ensued.  As  I  made  my  way 
to  the  door  fully  two-thirds  of  the  audience,  cheering  and 
shouting,  followed  me  into  the  street. 

I  was  elected  mayor  of  Cleveland  April  i,   1901,  re- 


ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND     117 

ceiving  upwards  of  six  thousand  more  votes  than  the  Re- 
publican nominee.  It  should  be  remembered  that  Mr. 
Akers  also  stood  on  a  three-cent-fare  platform  and  that 
Cleveland  has  had  no  candidate  for  mayor  on  any  ticket 
from  that  day  to  this  who  has  not  advocated  three-cent 
fare  or  approximately  that.  A  few  Democratic  ward 
councilmen  were  returned,  but  I  was  the  only  Democrat 
elected  on  the  general  ticket. 

For  some  reason  none  of  my  enemies  —  not  even  the 
bitterest  —  ever  charged  that  I  would  be  inefficient.  It 
seemed  to  be  universally  conceded  that  "I  could  if  I 
would,"  but  that  "  I  wouldn't,"  was  so  insistently  preached 
that  it  was  curious  that  it  didn't  make  more  impression. 
Just  as  soon  as  I  was  elected  all  suggestion  that  I  would 
go  off  to  New  York  or  anywhere  else  and  leave  the  duties 
of  my  office  to  others  was  absolutely  dropped  by  the  Cleve- 
land newspapers. 

The  law  provided  that  the  mayor-elect  could  take  office 
as  soon  as  he  had  qualified  and  it  was  customary  to  do  so 
within  two  or  three  weeks  after  election.  My  injunction 
which  prevented  the  city  from  executing  the  ordinance 
in  the  lake  front  case  was  to  expire  at  eleven  a.  m.,  April 
4,  and  I  didn't  propose  to  let  precedent  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  best  method  of  dealing  with  that  matter.  I  there- 
fore requested  the  members  of  the  board  of  elections  to 
work  day  and  night  in  order  that  the  vote  might  be  can- 
vassed before  the  expiration  of  the  injunction.  As  soon 
as  the  official  count  of  the  votes  was  announced,  therefore, 
at  10:23  a.  m.,  April  4,  just  thirty-seven  minutes  before 
the  injunction  expired,  I  took  the  official  oath  in  the  office 
of  the  city  clerk  on  the  third  floor  of  the  City  Hall,  filed 
my  bond  at  10:30  and  went  directly  to  the  mayor's  office 


n8  MY  STORY 

on  the  floor  below.  Mr.  Farley  looked  up  as  I  came  in 
and  mumbled  ungraciously: 

"  Well,  Tom,  when  are  you  going  to  take  hold?  " 

I  replied  that  I  hoped  he  would  take  his  time  about 
moving  his  belongings,  but  that  I  had  been  mayor  for  sev- 
eral minutes. 

One  of  the  very  early  acts  of  my  administration  was 
to  cause  the  introduction  of  an  ordinance  in  the  council 
repealing  the  ordinance  of  the  Farley  administration  in 
the  lake  front  matter.  That  case  has  been  in  the  courts 
practically  ever  since,  but  has  recently  been  decided  in  the 
city's  favor  by  the  court  of  common  pleas  and  by  the  cir- 
cuit court.  The  supreme  court  of  the  State  can  hardly 
fail  to  uphold  the  decision  of  the  lower  courts  that  the 
city  had  no  right  to  dispose  of  this  land.  Eventually  the 
lake  front  will  be  used  for  the  purposes  to  which  it  was 
dedicated  by  the  founders  of  the  city,  and  this  without 
Privilege  being  able  to  exact  tribute  for  its  use. 

When  I  was  elected  mayor  Cleveland  was  operating 
under  what  was  known  as  the  "  federal  plan  "  of  city  gov- 
ernment. For  fifty  years  or  more  the  cities  of  Ohio  had 
what  amounted  to  special  charters.  Though  applicable  in 
terms  to  all  the  cities  of  the  State  (to  comply  with  a  re- 
quirement of  the  State  constitution),  each  charter  was, 
nevertheless,  so  drawn  as  to  affect  only  the  city  for  which 
it  was  intended.  To  illustrate,  cities  of  not  less  than 
25,000  inhabitants,  nor  more  than  25,250,  might  be  put 
in  a  specified  class,  and  provisions  then  be  made  for  the 
government  of  all  cities  of  that  class.  Only  one  city,  of 
course,  would  come  within  the  class.  It  was  a  trans- 
parent evasion  of  the  constitutional  prohibition  of  special 


ELECTED  MAYOR  OF  CLEVELAND     119 

legislation,  but  for  fifty  years  the  courts  had  winked  at  or 
approved  it. 

Under  this  practice  a  charter  for  Cleveland  was  granted 
some  ten  years  before  which  did  away  with  all  the  anti- 
quated and  corrupting  systems  of  board  rule,  and  estab- 
lished the  federal  plan.  The  essential  feature  of  this 
plan  was  its  concentration  of  responsibility.  Legislative 
'functions  were  left  to  the  city  council,  but  the  mayor  was 
invested  with  all  the  executive  functions,  coupled  with  a 
legislative  veto. 

The  mayor  and  the  city  councilmen  were  elected.  The 
heads  of  the  following  named  departments  were  appointed 
by  the  mayor:  Law,  public  works,  fire,  police,  accounts, 
charities,  and  they  were  known  as  directors  of  their  re- 
spective departments.  These  directors,  with  the  mayor, 
formed  the  board  of  control,  commonly  known  as  the 
mayor's  cabinet.  The  system  was  an  admirable  one  since 
it  made  the  mayor  responsible  for  the  administrative  gov- 
ernment of  the  city.  The  power  of  appointment  and  re- 
moval of  the  directors  was  in  his  hands.  It  was  a  better 
system  than  any  other  city  in  the  United  States  had  at  that 
time.  If  it  had  embodied  the  initiative  and  referendum 
and  the  recall  it  would  have  been  superior  to  any  system 
of  city  government  now  in  operation  in  this  country,  in 
my  opinion.  The  city  council  consisted  of  twenty-two 
members  elected  by  districts  and  sitting  in  one  body  and 
responsible,  as  has  been  said,  for  the  legislative  part  of  the 
government. 

On  that  first  morning  in  the  mayor's  office  I  requested 
the  directors  of  the  various  departments  to  continue  in 
office  until  further  notice.  The  director  of  public  works 


120  MY  STORY 

said,  "  I  ordered  the  May  Company  to  tear  down  a  storm- 
door  on  Ontario  street  and  gave  them  until  ten  o'clock 
this  morning  to  do  it.  They  have  ignored  the  order. 
What  shall  I  do?" 

"  Take  some  policemen  and  tear  it  down  yourself," 
I  answered.  That  was  my  first  informal  order.  I  like  to 
remember  that  my  first  formal  official  act  was  to  sign  a 
pardon  for  a  man  serving  a  workhouse  sentence. 


<     .5 

J     J 


I  FOUND  a  city  council  of  eleven  holdovers  and  eleven 
newly-elected  members,  twelve  of  whom  were  Repub- 
licans and  ten  Democrats.  My  first  move  was  to  organize 
those  of  both  parties  who  regarded  the  public  interest  as 
of  more  importance  than  party,  against  the  crooked  Dem- 
ocrats and  the  crooked  Republicans.  Frederic  C.  Howe 
and  William  J.  Springborn  were  two  Republican  members 
who  at  once  identified  themselves  with  the  administration. 
Mr  Howe  soon  joined  us  politically,  but  Mr.  Springborn 
continued  as  a  Republican  for  some  time.  I  worked  for 
his  election  as  a  Republican  member  of  council  the  next 
year  and  later  (after  the  State  gave  us  a  new  municipal 
code  which  made  the  directors  elective)  for  his  nomina- 
tion and  election  as  a  Republican  on  the  Democratic  ticket 
to  the  office  of  director  of  public  works.  I  commenced  at 
once  to  take  advantage  of  weakened  party  lines  and  to  do 
what  I  could  to  weaken  them  still  further. 

One  of  the  first  things  which  engaged  my  attention  was 
the  selection  of  my  cabinet,  and  I  made  a  good  many  mis- 
takes in  my  earliest  appointments.  It  was  about  a  year 
before  I  really  succeeded  in  getting  an  efficient  set  of  di- 
rectors. 

There  were  innumerable  matters  calling  for  immediate 
consideration  and  I  acted  as  quickly  as  possible  in  as  many 
directions  as  I  could.  The  secret  of  a  good  executive  is 

121 


f  this 
.  t 


122  MY  STORY 

one   who   always   acts  quickly  and  is   sometimes 


right. 

In  less  than  a  week  after  taking  office  I  ordered  uni- 
formed policemen  stationed  at  the  doors  of  gambling 
houses  and  houses  of  prostitution  having  saloons  in  con- 
nection, and  instructed  them  to  take  the  names  and  ad- 
dresses of  all  persons  who  entered.  It  makes  a  man 
mighty  uncomfortable  to  go  on  record  in  this  way,  even 
if  he  gives  a  fictitious  name  and  address.  This  method 
proved  so  successful  as  to  the  gambling  houses  that  in  a 
short  time  public  gambling  in  Cleveland  was  practically 
abolished.  I  knew  that  we  couldn't  rid  the  city  of  the 
social  evil  any  more  than  we  could  rid  it  of  private  gam- 
bling, but  I  was  determined  to  permit  no  saloons  in  con- 
nection with  houses  of  prostitution  and  to  destroy  the  per- 
nicious practice  of  the  police  of  levying  fines  upon  unfortu- 
nate women.  It  had  long  been  the  custom  in  Cleveland, 
as  in  other  large  cities,  for  the  police  to  raid  these  houses 
and  collect  a  lot  of  fines  whenever  the  funds  of  the  police 
court  got  low.  This  simply  amounted  to  blackmail  and 
hadn't  the  slightest  effect  in  checking  the  evil,  but  rather 
stimulated  it  and  gave  rise  to  a  horrible  system  of  favorit- 
ism and  extortion.  I  called  my  policemen  together  and 
told  them  that  not  a  cent  was  to  come  into  the  city's  hands 
by  this  method,  that  if  the  police  court  had  to  depend  for 
revenue  upon  fines  imposed  in  this  manner,  it  would  have 
to  go  without  pay.  Street  soliciting  by  either  sex  was 
strictly  prohibited. 

You  can't  legislate  men  or  women  into  being  good,  but 
you  can  remove  artificial  stimulants  to  make  them  bad. 
Cleveland's  way  of  dealing  with  this  problem  during  my 
administration  compares  very  favorably,  I  believe,  with 


CITY  GOVERNMENT  123 

the  methods  employed  by  any  other  American  city.  It 
became  an  established  part  of  the  policy  of  Chief  Kohler 
—  of  whom  more  later  —  but  the  idea  of  placing  a  uni- 
formed officer  at  the  entrance  to  places  of  questionable 
repute  did  not  originate  with  the  chief  or  with  me.  It 
was  a  plan  my  father  used  while  he  was  chief  of  police  of 
Louisville,  and  he  got  it  from  Yankee  Ely,  a  detective 
famous  in  Kentucky  in  the  sixties  and  seventies. 

I  ordered  a  strict  inspection  of  theatres  and  other  pub- 
lic buildings,  made  immediate  war  on  bill-boards  and  or- 
dered old  frame  structures  torn  down,  put  a  force  of 
"'  white  wings "  to  work  cleaning  up  the  down  town 
streets,  inaugurated  steps  looking  towards  a  better  light- 
ing system,  set  the  law  department  to  hunting  up  expiring 
street  railway  franchises,  moved  to  reduce  water  rents,  had 
a  contest  with  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  over  the  owner- 
ship of  twenty-nine  streets,  looked  after  some  city  cases 
pending  in  the  federal  court,  established  a  department 
examiner  to  keep  an  eye  on  all  departments  of  the  city 
government,  took  down  the  "  Keep  Off  the  Grass  "  signs 
in  the  parks,  commenced  to  institute  people's  amusements 
in  the  parks  and  pardoned  eleven  out  of  fifteen  applicants 
for  pardon  in  the  city  workhouse. 

I  instituted  a  lot  of  changes  at  the  City  Hall,  moving 
the  health  department  from  the  third  to  the  first  floor,  for 
one  thing,  so  that  a  contagious  disease  patient  wouldn't 
have  a  chance  to  infect  others  by  his  presence  in  the  ele- 
vator or  in  the  corridors. 

I  refused  to  sign  city  ordinances  unless  they  were  prop- 
erly engrossed.  I  insisted  that  everybody  who  had  any- 
thing to  do  should  do  it  the  best  that  it  could  be  done,  and 
altogether  we  were  a  pretty  busy  lot  of  workers.  So 


i24  MY  STORY 

many  things  seemed  to  demand  attention  at  once  that  I 
had  my  hand  on  every  department  of  the  city  government 
before  I  had  been  in  office  a  month.  Of  course  all  these 
activities  cost  money  and  as  there  wasn't  sufficient  avail- 
able money  in  sight,  the  usual  howl  of  "  extravagance  " 
was  raised.  But  I  knew  these  things  had  to  be  done  if 
we  were  to  keep  our  promise  to  give  good  government 
and  I  went  ahead  and  did  them,  trusting  to  devise  a  way 
to  get  the  funds  afterwards. 

Under  what  is  called  economy  in  city  government 
there  is  much  foolish  holding  back  of  necessary  public  im- 
provements. If  fraud  and  graft  are  kept  out  there  is  not 
apt  to  be  much  unwisdom  in  public  expenditures;  and 
from  the  business  man's  standpoint  the  return  for  the 
original  outlay  is  very  large  —  even  where  debt  is  created 
within  reasonable  limits. 

With  anything  like  an  equitable  system  of  collecting 
the  just  revenues  of  a  city,  the  cost  of  these  improvements, 
if  paid  in  the  first  instance  by  tax  levy,  would  be  wise. 
Good  sanitary  conditions,  public  parks,  pure  water,  play- 
grounds for  children  and  well  paved  streets  are  the  best 
kind  of  investments,  while  the  absence  of  them  entails  not 
only  heavy  pecuniary  loss,  but  operates  to  the  moral  and 
physical  deterioration  of  the  city's  inhabitants. 

Limitation  on  taxes  for  public  works  is  as  foolish  as 
limitation  on  increase  in  capital  and  plant  of  manufac- 
turing enterprises.  The  question  is  not  "  how  much  do 
you  spend?  "  but  "  how  wisely  do  you  spend  it?  "  To 
economize  on  needed  public  improvements  is  worse  than 
wasteful. 

The  generally  accepted  standard  of  values  in  this  con- 
nection is  all  wrong.  So  obsessed  have  we  become  with 


CITY  GOVERNMENT  125 

the  idea  of  property  rights  that  we  are  constantly  forget- 
ting that  in  the  last  analysis  we  are  dealing  with  men  and 
women  and  children  and  not  with  things. 

But  to  give  "  good  government  "  in  the  ordinarily  ac- 
cepted sense  of  the  term,  wasn't  the  thing  I  was  in  public 
life  for.  It  was  a  part  of  our  policy  from  the  beginning 
of  our  work  in  Cleveland,  it  is  true,  but  as  a  side  issue, 
merely.  While  we  tried  to  give  the  people  clean  and  well 
lighted  streets,  pure  water,  free  access  to  their  parks,  pub- 
lic baths  and  comfort  stations,  a  good  police  department, 
careful  market  inspection,  a  rigid  system  of  weights  and 
measures,  and  to  make  the  charitable  and  correctional 
institutions  aid  rather  than  punish  wrongdoers,  and  to  do 
the  hundred  and  one  other  things  that  a  municipality  ought 
to  do  for  its  inhabitants  —  while  we  tried  to  do  all  these 
things,  and  even  to  outstrip  other  cities  in  the  doing  of 
them,  we  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  they  were  not  fun- 
damental. However  desirable  good  government,  or  gov- 
ernment by  good  men  may  be,  nothing  worth  while  will 
be  accomplished  unless  we  have  sufficient  wisdom  to  search 
for  the  causes  that  really  corrupt  government.  I  agree 
with  those  who  say  that  it  is  big  business  and  the  kind  of 
big  business  that  deals  in  and  profits  from  public  service 
grants  and  taxation  injustices  that  is  the  real  evil  in  our 
cities  and  the  country  to-day.  This  big  business  furnishes 
the  sinews  of  war  to  corrupt  bosses  regardless  of  party 
affiliations.  This  big  business  which  profits  by  bad  gov- 
ernment must  stand  against  all  movements  that  seek  to 
abolish  its  scheme  of  advantage. 

It  was  these  fundamental  wrongs  that  I  wished  to  at- 
tack and  one  of  my  first  acts  as  mayor  was  to  establish  a 
Tax  School  designed  to  show  the  inequalities  in  taxation. 


126  MY  STORY 

Peter  Witt  was  put  in  charge  with  Newton  D.  Baker 
(who  afterwards  became  city  solicitor) as  legal  adviser 
and  with  numerous  assistants. 

The  constitution  of  Ohio  says  that  all  property  shall 
be  appraised  at  its  true  value  in  money  and  the  statute  car- 
rying this  provision  into  effect  uses  the  same  words. 

Land  and  buildings  were  appraised  once  in  ten  years 
by  appraisers  elected  in  the  wards  of  cities  and  the  town- 
ships of  counties.  These  appraisers  were  expected  to  com- 
plete their  work  in  a  ninety-day  period  of  time.  New 
buildings  as  they  were  erected  were  added  to  the  tax  du- 
plicate by  the  city  annual  board  of  equalization  appointed 
by  the  mayor,  which  board  also  took  care  of  the  personal 
property  returns,  and  was  clothed  with  power  to  change 
gross  inequalities  in  appraisals  of  land  made  by  the  decen- 
nial appraisers. 

Steam  railroad  property,  both  realty  and  personal,  was 
appraised  annually  by  the  county  auditors  in  the  counties 
through  which  the  railroads  ran.  These  auditors  sat  as 
a  board  and  convened  in  the  largest  city  of  the  various 
counties  which  the  railroads  traversed.  Auditors  were 
elected  by  popular  vote. 

Outside  of  cities  there  were  assessors  appointed  by  the 
county  auditors  whose  duty  it  was  to  appraise  personal 
property  annually. 

This,  briefly,  was  the  system  of  taxation  in  operation 
when  we  started  our  Tax  School. 

The  local  taxing  board,  or  board  of  equalization,  ap- 
pointed by  previous  mayors,  was  in  the  control  of  tax- 
dodgers.  While  it  was  really  vested  with  great  power 
this  board  had  exercised  that  power  principally  in  cor- 
recting clerical  errors  or  in  adding  to  the  tax  duplicate  the 


CITY  GOVERNMENT  127 

value  of  additions  to  small  property  like  painting  houses 
or  putting  in  bathtubs. 

The  steam  railroads,  as  has  been  stated,  were  assessed 
by  boards  of  county  auditors  in  the  counties  traversed  by 
the  railroads. 

Small  taxpayers  generally  were  paying  full  rates,  while 
the  public  service  corporations,  steam  railroads  and  large 
land-owning  interests  were  paying  between  ten  and 
twenty  per  cent,  only  of  the  amount  required  by  law. 
More  than  half  the  personal  property  and  nearly  all  the 
valuable  privileges  were  escaping  taxation. 

At  first  our  Tax  School  was  maintained  by  private  funds 
and  had  no  legal  connection  with  the  city  government, 
but  those  in  charge  of  it  were  granted  the  use  of  city  maps 
and  were  permitted  to  call  upon  employes  of  the  civil  en-' 
gineer's  department  for  help  in  connection  with  the  maps. 
Witt  was  the  first  man  I  appointed  and  he  objected  to  tak- 
ing the  position,  but  I  would  not  take  "  no  "  for  an  an- 
swer. 

The  clerks  employed  first  copied  the  records  in  the 
county  auditor's  office  showing  the  assessed  value  of  all 
lots  and  buildings  in  the  city.  From  these  records,  on  a 
map  sixteen  feet  square  and  comprising  one  whole  ward, 
we  showed  the  inequalities  in  assessed  values.  Citizens 
in  general  and  tax-payers  in  particular  were  invited  to  a 
large  room  in  the  City  Hall,  at  one  end  of  which  this  map 
was  suspended.  Pursuing  this  method  by  multiplying  the 
number  of  maps  the  assessment  of  real  estate  block  by 
block  and  ward  by  ward  was  shown.  Discussion  was  in- 
vited, criticisms  and  suggestions  asked  for,  and  by  means 
of  this  discussion,  together  with  a  searching  investigation 
of  the  records  of  real  estate  transfers  and  leases,  we  as- 


128  MY  STORY 

certained  the  real  value  of  one  foot  front  of  land  by  one 
hundred  feet  in  depth,  which  method  is  known  as  the 
Somers  unit  system  of  taxation  and  without  which  no  fair 
and  accurate  appraisal  of  land  can  be  made. 

When  the  unit  values  were  finally  agreed  to  they  were 
written  into  the  center  of  each  block  on  the  various  maps. 
The  members  of  the  city  board  of  equalization  then  signed 
the  map  making  it  thereby  a  public  record  showing  the 
date  on  which  the  values  had  been  agreed  upon.  Then 
a  photographer  made  a  picture  of  the  map  and  negatives 
of  this  photograph  were  furnished  the  clerks  who  were 
at  work  in  another  room,  and  they,  having  the  small  maps 
before  them  showing  the  individual  ownerships  and  the 
photographic  record  of  the  unit  values,  worked  out  and 
wrote  into  each  space  provided  on  these  small  maps,  the 
actual  cash  value  of  each  particular  piece  of  land  and 
the  assessed  value  as  well.  The  total  number  of  sub- 
divisions of  land  in  Cleveland  was  one  hundred  and  one 
thousand  and  the  assessed  values  varied  from  two  per 
cent,  of  to  sixty-eight  per  cent,  above  the  actual  or  market 
value. 

We  were  not  satisfied  with  getting  this  information  to 
the  persons  who  visited  the  Tax  School.  We  wanted 
to  reach  every  tax-payer  in  the  city  with  it.  So  the  Tax 
School  issued  a  circular  letter  to  the  people  of  each  ward, 
which  letter  set  forth  the  cash  value  of  all  land  in  Cleve- 
land, the  appraised  value  of  all  land  in  Cleveland,  the 
cash  value  of  all  land  in  that  particular  ward,  likewise 
its  appraised  value,  then  the  number  of  parcels  assessed 
at  less  than  the  average  value  in  the  ward,  citing  the  best 
known  pieces  as  a  concrete  illustration;  then  the  number 
of  parcels  assessed  at  more  than  the  average  value  and 


CITY  GOVERNMENT  129 

again  using  the  best  known  piece  as  the  illustration  of  this 
point. 

The  city  board  of  equalization,  already  referred  to, 
was  a  municipal  institution  of  long  standing.  Its  mem- 
bers were  appointed  by  the  mayor.  It  was  these  mem- 
bers who  signed  the  map  in  the  Tax  School  and  it  was 
this  board  which  would  have  corrected  the  inequalities  in 
taxation  had  not  the  State  legislature  wiped  it  out  by  legis- 
lative enactment,  and  provided  in  its  stead  a  board  of 
review  appointed  by  State  officials. 

This  board  of  review  was  paid  from  county  funds  for 
a  purely  municipal  service.  To  this  board  we  sent  the 
names  of  all  owners  and  the  description  of  their  property 
which  was  under  assessed.  To  the  people  we  sent  the 
letter  already  mentioned  and  requested  all  those  whose 
property  was  over  assessed  to  seek  their  remedy  from  the 
board  of  review. 

So  far  as  I  know  this  was  the  first  intelligent  and  con- 
certed effort  to  relieve  the  people  of  Ohio  of  the  injustice 
of  the  privilege  in  taxation  which  had  been  a  decennial 
bone  of  contention  in  the  State  for  eighty  years. 

By  this  time  the  Tax  School  was  operating  as  a  part 
of  the  city  machinery,  council  having  made  an  appro- 
priation for  its  maintenance.  The  greatest  of  all  privi- 
leges is  the  privilege  of  having  another  man  pay  your 
taxes  and  the  beneficiaries  of  this  unjust  taxation  could 
not  stand  our  agitation,  so  on  October  8,  1902,  W.  J. 
Crawford,  the  Republican  boss,  and  a  large  property 
owner,  brought  suit  to  enjoin  the  expenditure  of  city 
money  in  this  manner. 

The  case  was  carried  through  the  courts,  the  temporary 
injunction  was  made  permanent  and  the  Tax  School  was 


i3o  MY  STORY 

eventually  forced  to  suspend.  However,  it  had  now  been 
in  operation  twenty  months  and  its  work  could  not  be 
undone.  Not  only  was  it  instrumental  in  making  public 
service  corporations  pay  sixty  thousand  dollars  a  year 
more  in  taxes,  but,  fearing  the  result  of  a  tax  fight,  these 
same  corporations  made  a  secret  settlement  of  back  taxes 
at  the  end  of  his  term  with  county  auditor  Craig  who 
was  their  friend,  by  paying  into  the  county  treasury  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  back  taxes. 

The  following  year  in  my  campaign  for  Governor  of 
Ohio  we  dug  out  the  inequalities  in  taxation  in  every  city 
in  which  my  tent  was  pitched'  and  by  the  use  of  a  stereop- 
ticon  we  showed  not  only  the  inequalities  existing  in  Cleve- 
land but  gave  many  local  illustrations  as  well. 

Important  changes  in  the  State  tax  laws  may  be  traced 
to  the  work  of  the  Tax  School.  Land  and  buildings  are 
now  appraised  separately  for  taxation  and  the  old  de- 
cennial appraisement  has  been  replaced  by  a  quadrennial 
appraisement  and  these  quadrennial  boards  of  appraise- 
ment, consisting  of  five  members,  are  elected  locally  and 
at  large  without  party  designation. 

Results  thus  far  obtained  more  than  justify  the  publicity 
methods  which  we  employed  to  direct  the  attention  of 
an  indifferent  public  to  this  all  important  question  of 
taxation. 

The  question  of  taxation  was  no  less  a  State  question 
than  a  local  one.  Indeed  our  whole  Cleveland  move- 
ment was  more  than  local,  more  than  a  one  city  move- 
ment from  the  very  beginning.  The  big  lesson  we  started 
out  to  teach  through  the  Tax  School  and  in  other  ways 
was  that  taxation  in  all  its  forms,  however  designated, 
is  merely  the  rule  by  which  burdens  are  distributed  among 


CITY  GOVERNMENT  131 

individuals  and  corporations.  Farms,  buildings,  personal 
property,  land,  pay  no  taxes,  yet  so  persistently  have  these 
inanimate  objects  been  spoken  of  as  being  taxed  that  the 
public  has  all  but  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  it  is  men 
and  women  who  are  taxed  and  not  things.  So  long  and 
so  universally  has  taxation  been  regarded  as  a  fiscal  system 
only  that  comparatively  few  people  recognize  it  for  what 
it  is,  viz. :  a  human  question. 


XIV 

HOW   RAILROADS   RULE 

AN  early  opportunity  to  take  aggressive  measures  on 
the  subject  of  railroad  taxation  presented  itself.  The 
county  auditors'  board  met  in  Cleveland  in  May,  1901, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  valuation  of  steam  railroads 
whose  roads  ran  through  Cleveland  and  Cuyahoga 
county.  I  invited  Professor  E.  W.  Bemis,  an  expert 
on  the  valuation  of  public  service  corporations  and  the 
only  such  expert  on  the  people's  side,  to  come  on  from 
New  York  where  he  was  then  located,  and  assist  us  in 
arriving  at  the  true  valuation  of  these  properties.  I  at- 
tended the  meeting  of  the  auditors  and  insisted  on  being 
heard. 

We  had  to  get  at  the  real  tax  valuation  of  the  rail- 
roads running  through  Cleveland.  Time  and  again  I 
took  Professor  Bemis  before  the  auditors.  Our  desire 
was  to  get  them  to  place  at  least  a  sixty  per  cent,  valua- 
tion upon  these  properties.  As  a  rule  they  placed  their 
assessment  of  railroad  properties  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  return  given  them  by  the  auditors  and  land  tax  agents 
of  the  various  railroads  who  made  the  returns  on  their 
respective  properties  at  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent,  of  their 
market  value. 

I  attended  a  great  many  of  these  auditors'  meetings, 
trying  to  force  them  to  put  up  the  valuation  to  something 
like  that  which  had  been  placed  upon  the  property  of 

132 


EDWARD  W.    BEM1S 

"An  expert  on  the  valuation  of  public  service  corporations,  and  the  only  such 
expert  on  the  people's  side." 


HOW  RAILROADS  RULE  133 

small  householders  and  other  people.  I  frequently  asked 
them  to  give  me  just  a  few  minutes  of  their  time,  while 
my  experts  showed  them  how  inadequately  they  were  ad- 
judging these  valuations,  and  on  one  occasion  went  before 
the  court  in  mandamus  proceedings  to  compel  them  to 
give  me  a  hearing. 

I  remember  saying  at  one  time  in  the  discussion  over 
the  Cleveland  Terminal  &  Valley  Railroad,  "  I  charge 
this  fact,  that  railroad  companies  by  distributing  favors 
and  passes  are  getting  off  with  paying  from  about  six 
or  seven  per  cent.,  to  about  fifteen  per  cent,  on  their  prop- 
erties, while  other  property  owners  are  taxed  on  the  basis 
of  a  sixty  per  cent,  valuation  or  higher." 

The  railroads  always  had  a  claim  agent  or  lawyer  pres- 
ent at  auditors'  meetings  to  swear  in  their  "  valuation." 
I  often  asked  the  auditors  and  the  representatives  of  the 
railroads :  "  Is  there  any  reason  why  railroads  should 
be  assessed  differently  from  farm  and  home  property?  " 
but  I  never  got  an  answer.  On  one  occasion  I  said,  "  How 
do  you  auditors  arrive  at  a  valuation  of  five  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars  a  mile  for  this  railroad  property?  I  claim 
that  instead  of  being  appraised  at  five  thousand  five  hun- 
dred dollars  a  mile  it  should  be  appraised  at  one  hundred 
and  six  thousand  dollars  a  mile." 

Auditor  William  Craig  said:  "  Mr.  Johnson,  our 
members  were  not  prepared  for  this.  I  think  we  had 
better  postpone  the  hearing  until  to-morrow." 

Then  the  claim  agent  for  the  "  Valley  Railroad,"  re- 
marked: "Yes,  we  should  have  twenty-four  hours,  at 
least." 

"  You  have  had  twenty-four  years,"  I  retorted,  but 
they  took  their  twenty-four  hours. 


134  MY  STORY 

In  the  case  of  the  Cleveland  Belt  &  Terminal  Railroad, 
Colonel  Myron  T.  Herrick,  afterward  Governor  of  Ohio, 
then  chairman  of  the  railroad's  board  and  its  receiver, 
was  present  when  the  auditors  were  about  to  pass  upon 
the  valuation  of  the  road.  The  road's  written  return 
placed  the  property  at  nineteen  thousand  six  hundred  and 
fifty-five  dollars.  J.  E.  Taussig,  the  assistant  general 
manager  of  the  Wheeling  &  Lake  Erie,  which  owns  the 
Belt  Line,  in  handing  over  the  report,  said,  "  That's  all 
we  have  to  say." 

Then  I  spoke  up  and  told  the  auditors  that  this  road 
was  sold  for  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  "  You 
will  remember,  Myron,"  I  said,  turning  to  Colonel  Her- 
rick, "  how  you  and  I  tried  to  buy  it  about  five  years  ago 
for  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  we  thought  that 
was  dirt  cheap.  And  it  hasn't  depreciated  any  since  then, 
has  it?" 

"  It  isn't  earning  anything,"  answered  Colonel  Her- 
rick. 

"  Well,"  I  said,  "  the  law  says  that  property  shall  be 
assessed  for  what  it  is  worth,  not  for  what  it  is  earning, 
and  it  is  worth  just  what  it  will  sell  for." 

I  then  called  upon  one  of  my  assistants  who  said  that 
he  had  walked  over  the  entire  length  of  the  road,  meas- 
ured the  width  of  the  right  of  way,  and  ascertained  the 
value  of  the  adjoining  property.  I  then  called  upon 
another  assistant,  an  engineer,  who  testified  that  he  had 
measured  the  earth-work  of  the  embankment  of  the  road, 
and  had  estimated  the  worth  of  trestles,  bridges,  rails,  etc. 

"  Now  then,"  I  said  to  the  auditors,  "  we  demand  of 
you  that  you  assess  this  road  at  sixty  per  cent,  of  its 
actual  value.  If  you  assess  it  at  nineteen  thousand  dol- 


HOW  RAILROADS  RULE  135 

lars,  as  this  railroad  asks  you  to  do,  and  as  it  has  been 
assessed  in  the  past,  you  are  taking  money  out  of  the 
pockets  of  the  people  and  putting  it  into  the  pocket  of  the 
railroad,  just  as  much  as  though  you  went  out  on  the  street 
with  a  club  and  robbed  a  man." 

At  this  point  Assistant  Manager  Taussig  interrupted  to 
say  that  my  assistant's  figure  as  to  the  number  of  acres 
was  nearly  twenty  acres  too  high. 

"  All  right,"  I  said,  "  if  you  acknowledge  fifty  acres, 
we'll  stand  on  that.  Honestly,  now,  do  you  think  nine- 
teen thousand  dollars  is  what  this  road  ought  to  be  re- 
turned for?" 

"  Based  on  its  earnings,  yes.  You  wouldn't  buy  any- 
thing that  wasn't  earning  anything,  would  you  ?  " 

"  My  dear  sir,  that  is  the  way  I  have  made  all  my 
money  —  buying  things  that  other  people  didn't  know 
how  to  handle." 

'  You  wouldn't  buy  this  for  what  you  claim  it  was  sold 
for,  four  hundred  thousand  dollars — ?  " 

uYes,  I  will." 

"  That's  a  bluff." 

"  Is  it  a  bluff?  I  will  make  a  big  cash  deposit  right 
here  and  take  this  road  for  four  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars." 

"  You  know  this  road  is  in  such  shape  legally  that  it 
can't  be  sold,"  interrupted  Colonel  Herrick. 

"  And  you  wouldn't  sell  it  for  anything  like  four  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  if  that  were  not  the  case." 

At  this  point  the  railroad's  attorney  spoke  up : 

"  All  this  is  nonsense  and  politics." 

"  Politics?  "  I  answered.  "  Of  course  it  is  politics.  It 
is  the  kind  of  politics  with  which  all  the  people  of  Cleve- 


136  MY  STORY 

land  —  Democrats  and  Republicans  —  are  in  sympathy. 
They  want  to  see  these  railroads  pay  their  just  share  of 
the  taxes,  and  they  look  to  me,  as  the  mayor  of  all  the 
people,  to  do  my  utmost  to  see  that  it  is  done.  That's 
what  we  are  here  for,  sir;  we  present  figures  and  facts, 
and  we  challenge  you  to  review  them.  You  don't  try. 
You  can't.  You  run  away.  You  say  you  only  ask  that 
you  be  assessed  as  other  railroads  are  assessed;  that  you 
have  precedent  in  your  favor.  Yes,  you  have  precedent 
and  you  have  the  votes;  you  have  the  county  auditors; 
you  have  the  auditor  of  this  county." 

It  was  also  at  this  meeting  that  I  called  upon  Auditor 
Craig  for  some  definite  information  about  the  bonds  of 
this  road,  and  he  replied,  "  That  was  before  my  time." 

"  I  expected  that  answer,"  I  said.  "  That  is  what  they 
all  say.  I  have  been  here  often,  and  I  have  seen  roads 
assessed  at  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent,  of  their  value.  I  un- 
derstand that  the  auditor  of  this  county  believes  that  rail- 
ways should  be. assessed  the  same  as  farm  lands,  which  is  at 
sixty  per  cent,  of  their  value.  I  want  to  know  what  the 
auditor  will  do,  and  what  his  method  of  assessment  will 
be." 

The  auditor  answered :  "  I  don't  know  that  I  can  tell 
that,  or  that  I  would  care  to." 

"  Your  answer  is  satisfactory.  I  am  going  to  prove 
that  you  auditors  simply  guess.  You  don't  know  whether 
or  not  you  are  buying  a  gold  brick." 

In  regard  to  the  hearing  before  the  auditors  about  the 
Nickel  Plate  road,  I  protested  every  inch  of  the  way. 
When  their  attorney,  who  was  present  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  road,  returned  the  value  upon  which  the  Nickel 
Plate  road  was  to  be  taxed,  I  took  their  return  and  showed 


HOW  RAILROADS  RULE  137 

where  the  report  was  dishonest.  It  listed  twenty-six  first- 
class  passenger  locomotives  in  fair  condition  at  one  thous- 
and five  hundred  and  fifty-five  dollars  apiece;  sixty-six 
first-class  freight  locomotives  in  fair  condition  at  two 
thousand  five  hundred  and  nine  dollars  apiece.  I  charged 
that  that  was  not  fifteen  per  cent,  of  their  real  value. 

"  Here,"  I  said,  "  are  six  thousand  box  cars  at  one 
hundred  and  forty  dollars  apiece.  We  all  know  one 
hundred  and  forty  dollars  would  not  pay  for  half  a  truck 
under  one  end  of  one  of  these  cars.  Now  I  ask  you 
again  to  call  on  this  company  to  appear  before  you  and 
explain." 

"  Now,  gentlemen,"  I  went  on,  "  the  market  value  of 
the  bonds  and  stocks  of  the  Nickel  Plate  company  is  about 
forty  million  dollars.  As  about  forty-six  per  cent,  of  the 
road  is  in  Ohio,  it  has  over  seventeen  million  dollars  worth 
of  property  in  this  State.  The  law  says  you  shall  assess 
property  at  its  full  value  in  money  and  that  includes  rail- 
roads, but  as  you  have  adopted  a  rule  to  assess  property  at 
only  sixty  per  cent,  of  its  value,  I  ask  you  to  apply  that 
rule  in  this  case.  If  you  apply  this  rule  of  sixty  per  cent., 
the  Nickel  Plate  road  will  pay  on  about  ten  million  dol- 
lars instead  of  three  million  dollars  in  Ohio  as  it  has  been 
doing  and  wants  to  continue  to  do." 

Then  Auditor  Craig  called  the  other  auditors  into  ex- 
ecutive session  and  the  attorney,  who  seemed  to  know 
how  the  vote  would  go,  said:  "  Now  we  will  see." 

I  answered,  "  Oh,  you've  got  the  votes  of  this  board 
of  auditors  all  right,  but  you  haven't  got  the  last  say. 
We  will  put  this  matter  up  to  the  State  board  of  railroad 
equalization  at  Columbus,  and  if  it  does  not  do  the  right 
thing  we  will  put  it  up  to  the  courts.  And  if  we  don't 


i3 8  MY  STORY 

get  a  square  deal  there,  we  will  put  it  up  to  the  voters  of 
Ohio.  The  people  will  take  this  matter  up  finally  and 
then  the  railroads  will  be  brought  to  time." 

So  thoroughly  under  the  control  of  the  railroads  was 
this  board  of  auditors  that  the  railroad's  return  was  ac- 
cepted. The  result  of  all  this  demonstration  was  that  the 
auditors  raised  the  valuation  of  the  road  over  what  it  was 
the  year  before  less  than  one  per  cent. ! 

I  put  detectives  on  the  trail  of  the  auditors  to  find  out 
exactly  what  relations  they  held  with  the  railroad  com- 
panies, but  knowing  they  were  watched,  they  did  nothing 
more  criminal  than  dine  with  the  railroad's  representa- 
tives and  ride  on  passes.  Frequently  I  tried  to  get  them 
to  let  me  address  them,  but  they  always  voted  me  down. 
I  got  out  a  mandamus  to  force  them  to  put  railroad  of- 
ficials on  the  stand  and  make  them  swear  under  oath 
to  the  actual  valuation  which  they  returned  in  their  tax 
lists. 

When  I  asked  for  information,  half  a  dozen  auditors 
remarked,  "  Oh,  pay  no  attention  to  him !  " 

I  began  to  laugh  and  just  then  the  sheriff  arrived  with 
the  writ  of  mandamus  and  served  it  on  the  auditor. 

"  Get  on  to  the  grandstand  play  of  this  accidental 
mayor,"  shouted  an  auditor  named  Sissler.  "  Let's  see 
what  he's  got." 

After  he  saw  what  I  had,  he  announced,  "  I  guess  we've 
got  to  stop." 

"  That's  the  first  chance  I've  had,"  I  said. 

"  Yes,  and  it's  all  you  will  get,"  said  Sissler.  "  We're 
sick  and  tired  of  this  nonsense." 

"  So  am  I.     Why  don't  you  stop  it?  "  I  answered. 

After  this  long  session  with  these  men  I  said  to  them : 


HOW  RAILROADS  RULE  139 

"  Gentlemen,  you  have  succeeded  in  keeping  the  railroad 
taxes  just  where  they  were.  You  have  but  dammed  up 
the  courses  that  will  eventually  sweep  over  you.  The 
time  will  come  when  you  will  be  sorry." 

I  carried  this  question  to  the  people  in  two  very  ag- 
gressive State  campaigns  and  always  into  the  State  con- 
ventions of  the  Democratic  party.  I  showed  the  methods 
by  which  the  railroads  controlled  county  auditors.  Rail- 
road land  agents  were  very  active  in  nominating  conven- 
tions before  elections;  and  after  election,  in  addition  to 
giving  auditors  and  their  friends  passes  itwas  no  uncommon 
thing  for  them  to  take  auditors  and  their  families  to  the 
seashore  for  the  summer.  These  abuses  were  so  evident 
and  met  with  such  universal  condemnation  when  I  called 
attention  to  them  that  a  great  many  auditors  fell  into  line, 
promised  to  be  "  good  "  and  stood  on  our  platform.  It 
was  noticeable,  however,  that  we  rarely  found  a  majority 
of  our  friends  on  any  auditors'  board. 

We  appealed  for  a  public  hearing  to  the  State  board  of 
equalization,  composed  of  the  Governor  and  several  other 
State  officers,  which  board  had  power  to  equalize  the  re- 
turns of  the  county  auditors. 

I  took  Professor  Bemis  and  Attorney  Newton  D.  Baker 
with  me  to  Columbus  to  participate  in  this  hearing. 

This  board  tried  to  hide  behind  the  statute.  It  claimed 
that  it  could  do  nothing  in  the  way  of  raising  the  assess- 
ment on  the  railroads,  saying  that  the  county  auditors 
levied  the  assessment  and  that  all  that  the  State  board  was 
for  was  to  handle  matters  of  "  equalization." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Baker,  "  suppose  that  the  county 
auditors  for  some  reason  failed  to  return  a  road  at  all. 
What  then?" 


i4o  MY  STORY 

'  We  couldn't  do  a  thing,"  answered  the  chairman. 

"  Suppose  that  they  return  a  road  for  a  valuation  so  low 
as  to  be  ridiculous,  and  on  its  face  not  one  hundredth  part 
of  what  it  should  be  taxed.  What  then?  " 

"  We  would  not  be  able  to  do  anything,"  protested  the 
chairman.  "  The  statute  says  we  shall  equalize  the  values 
as  returned  by  the  county  auditors." 

The  total  taxes  to  be  paid  by  a  railroad  are  divided 
among  the  several  counties  according  to  the  railroad  mile- 
age therein.  This  often  gives  an  agricultural  county  more 
taxes  than  a  county  in  which  there  is  a  city  where  the 
railroad's  valuable  terminals  are  located. 

'  Whether  the  plan  of  assessing  railroad  property  by  the 
mile  is  constitutional,"  I  said,  "  is  a  matter  that  the  law- 
yers will  have  to  decide.  Certainly  no  man  will  say  that 
it  is  just.  It's  true  that  it  benefits  the  rural  counties  in 
that  it  gives  them  money  they  are  not  entitled  to  —  money 
that  rightfully  belongs  to  the  counties  in  which  are  located 
the  large  cities.  It  was  by  that  species  of  argument  and 
powerful  lobbies  that  the  railroads  secured  the  enactment 
of  the  law  establishing  this  system.  I  am  not  here  to 
attack  that  statute  because  it  benefits  the  rural  counties, 
but  to  complain  because  the  boards  of  county  auditors 
have  failed  in  the  performance  of  their  sworn  duties,  and 
thereby  robbed  not  only  the  counties  in  which  are  located 
the  large  cities  but  those  in  which  our  rural  brethren  live 
as  well." 

"  Perhaps  the  auditors  did  not  know  any  better,"  sug- 
gested Attorney  General  Sheets. 

"  Perhaps  they  didn't,"  I  replied,  "  but  those  who  met 
at  Cleveland  could  not  offer  such  an  excuse.  We  told 


HOW  RAILROADS  RULE  141 

them  better,  and  we  didn't  ask  them  to  take  our  word  for 
it,  either.  We  asked  them  to  call  in  the  railroad  officials 
and  demand  their  books  and  see  for  themselves,  and  we 
ask  this  board  to  do  the  same.  We  do  not  ask  you  to 
accept  our  statements  alone.  We  have  pointed  out  the 
facts  and  have  told  you  how  you  can  find  them  for  your- 
selves. I  think  the  boards  of  county  auditors  combined 
are  very  much  like  other  public  bodies.  Some  of  the  men 
are  honest,  some  are  fools  and  some  are  rascals.  I  do 
not  know  of  a  public  body  that  is  constituted  otherwise, 
from  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  down. 

"  Now  suppose  this  board,"  I  said,  turning  to  Mr. 
Sheets,  "  refuses  to  equalize  these  appraisements  by  assess- 
ing all  the  roads  at  sixty  per  cent,  of  their  true  value  in 
money,  what  remedy  have  the  people?  None.  If  you 
do  not  do  your  duty  there  is  no  higher  body  to  which  the 
people  can  appeal.  But  that  is  not  true  of  the  railroads. 
If  you  exceed  your  powers  by  the  fraction  of  an  inch, 
the  railroads  will  at  once  appeal  to  the  courts  and  have  it 
corrected.  The  supreme  court  will  undo  any  illegal  act 
that  you  may  do,  but  it  will  not  do  any  legal  act  which 
you  should  have  done.  I  do-  not  know  what  you  will 
do,  but  I  do  know  that  there  will  come  a  time  when  the 
people  will  find  a  way  of  making  the  great  steam  rail- 
roads and  other  corporations  carry  their  just  share  of  the 
burden  of  taxation. 

"  The  big  corporations  get  all  the  benefits  of  the  pres- 
ent method  of  assessment.  How?  By  influencing  audi- 
tors, by  influencing  legislators,  by  influencing  courts  and 
by  influencing  elections.  Let  us  take  off  the  mask  and 
be  frank  with  each  other.  I  say  that  no  auditor  or  other 


1 42  MY  STORY 

official  who  has  a  railroad  pass  in  his  pocket  or  who  accepts 
other  favors  from  these  corporations  is  a  fit  man  to  say 
how  much  of  the  tax  they  shall  pay.  Some  men  may  be 
above  these  influences,  but  among  those  who  compose  the 
boards  that  have  to  do  with  the  question  of  taxation  in 
Ohio,  I  doubt  if  there  are  many.  Why,  gentlemen,  this 
business  of  extending  favors  to  public  officials  has  even 
gone  so  far  as  to  reach  your  august  body.  Two  of  you 
accepted  the  invitation  of  a  certain  railroad  official  to 
take  a  long  trip  in  a  private  car  to  California.  I  hope 
it  did  not  influence  you." 

The  board  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  our  pleadings.  Our 
next  appeal  was  to  the  supreme  court  whither  we  were 
followed  by  the  excited  attorneys  for  the  railroads.  We 
petitioned  the  court  for  a  writ  of  mandamus  compelling 
the  board  of  railroad  equalization  to  review  the  entire 
case  and  appraise  the  railroads  at  a  fair  valuation.  If 
the  supreme  court  had  decided  in  our  favor  the  State 
board  would  have  had  to  reassemble  and  add  about  two 
hundred  and  seventy  million  dollars  to  the  valuation  of 
steam  railway  property  in  Ohio.  Such  an  addition  would 
have  increased  the  tax  receipts  in  Ohio  from  steam  rail- 
way property  alone  about  four  million  dollars. 

Our  petition  was  denied.  The  supreme  court  referred 
us  to  the  legislature.  The  railroad  lawyers  followed  us 
and  here  again,  with  the  assistance  of  the  railroad  lobby, 
they  blocked  our  every  move. 

The  increase  in  the  tax  rate  which  resulted  from  all  this 
effort  was  so  slight  that  if  we  had  accomplished  nothing 
but  that,  we  might  well  have  felt  that  it  had  not  been 
worth  while  to  try.  The  agitation  then  started,  how- 


HOW  RAILROADS  RULE  143 

ever,  has  been  going  on  ever  since  and  will  continue,  I 
am  confident,  until  the  things  we  started  out  to  do  have 
been  fully  consummated. 

Some  definite  progress  has  been  made  for  the  county 
auditors'  tax  boards  have  been  abolished  and  in  their 
stead  there  is  a  State  tax  board  which  fixes  the  valuation 
of  steam  railroad  property  including  franchise  values. 
Two  cents  a  mile  is  now  the  legal  rate  of  fare  on  Ohio 
railroads,  and  it  is  significant  that  the  railroads  did  not 
even  attempt  to  have  the  law  declared  unconstitutional. 
The  pass  is  prohibited  by  law  and  State  and  local  officials 
no  longer  ride  free  —  at  least  not  openly. 

I  have  gone  into  detail  about  this  matter  of  railroad 
taxation  simply  because  it  shows  clearly  how  farcical,  how 
unjust  the  whole  scheme  of  taxation  is  as  applied  in  this 
country  to-day.  The  very  officers  you  elect  —  the  audi- 
tors, attorneys-general,  and  so  on  —  refuse  to  obey  even 
the  letter  of  the  law,  refuse  to  do  their  duty  by  you,  with 
the  consequence  that  these  men  you  put  in  office  simply 
put  that  much  more  burden  on  your  pocketbook.  If, 
for  instance,  these  railroads  had  not  been  able  to  corrupt 
these  officials  of  the  State  and  had  been  compelled  to  pay 
their  just  and  due  taxes  to  the  State  and  Cleveland  had 
received  her  share  of  this  tax  money  lawfully  due  her 
it  would  have  lightened  the  indebtedness  of  every  citizen 
in  Cleveland:  public  work  of  all  kinds  could  have  gone 
forward  without  any  financial  setbacks,  city  and  citizen 
alike  would  have  felt  the  benefits.  But  no.  The  rail- 
roads lied,  the  auditors  winked,  the  people  were  cheated 
and  the  money  stayed  where  it  could  do  the  least  good  and 
the  most  harm  —  in  the  pockets  of  Privilege.  And  this 


i44  MY  STORY 

sort  of  thing  is  going  on  every  day  of  your  life  in  your 
own  cities,  out  through  the  counties  of  your  own  States, 
in  the  shadow  of  your  State  houses  and  under  the  dome 
of  the  national  capitol. 


XV 

THE   WAY   OUT 

WHILE  our  State  fight  against  the  railroads  was  in 
progress  the  Cleveland  local  tax-board  or  board  of  equal- 
ization as  it  was  generally  called,  composed  of  my  ap- 
pointees, was  enjoined  by  the  court  of  common  pleas, 
July  22,  1901,  from  increasing  the  returns  of  the  personal 
property  of  public  service  corporations  in  Cleveland.  We 
fought  the  injunction  and  it  was  dissolved  July  30.  On 
the  same  day  the  board  added  nearly  twenty  million  dol- 
lars to  the  tax  duplicates  of  the  street  railway,  the  gas 
and  electric  lighting  companies ! 

These  corporations  appealed  to  the  board  of  revision 
to  prohibit  the  increased  valuation.  The  appeal  was 
made  in  November,  1901,  and  on  January  4,  1902,  the 
board  of  revision  sustained  the  increase. 

Three  days  later  the  case  was  appealed  to  the  Repub- 
lican State  board  of  tax  remission,  the  petition  claiming 
among  other  things  lack  of  power  on  the  part  of  local 
boards  to  impose  the  additional  assessment  in  question. 
This  power  had  never  been  questioned  when  it  was  ex- 
erted in  extorting  additional  taxes  from  the  uninformed 
and  helpless  —  but  here  was  a  different  case. 

On  February  I,  the  State  board  of  tax  remission  com- 
posed of  the  State  treasurer,  the  State  auditor  and  the 
attorney  general  remitted  the  entire  increase. 

"  I  suppose  you  will  want  to  know  why  we  did  this," 

145 


i46  MY  STORY 

said  Attorney-General  Sheets  to  the  newspaper  men. 
"  We  based  our  decision  on  the  fact  that  the  Cleveland 
board  applied  the  principles  of  the  Nichols  law  to  de- 
termining the  value  of  the  property  of  these  corporations. 
(This  law  was  enacted  to  apply  to  the  property  of  ex- 
press, telegraph,  and  telephone  companies  in  Ohio.  It 
provided  that  for  tax  purposes  their  value  shall  be  de- 
termined by  the  selling  value  of  their  stocks  and  bonds.) 
If  the  board  had  simply  made  an  error  in  judgment  as  to 
the  value  of  the  property  we  would  have  had  no  jurisdic- 
tion." 

"  In  other  words,"  said  the  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer, 
commenting  on  it,  "  if  the  Cleveland  board  had  gone  out 
and  looked  at  the  physical  property  of  the  corporations 
concerned  and  then  guessed  at  its  value,  this  board  could 
not  have  remitted  a  cent,  though  the  guess  had  been  that 
a  total  of  twenty  million  dollars  should  be  added.  It  was 
because  the  board  based  its  action,  according  to  the  Nich- 
ols law,  on  the  market  value  of  the  stocks  and  bonds  of 
these  concerns  that  the  State  board  overruled  it." 

Continuing,  the  Plain  Dealer  said :  '  The  fact  that 
the  value  of  the  stocks  and  bonds  was  confirmed  by  the 
Cleveland  board  by  a  careful  appraisement  of  the  physical 
property  and  the  cost  of  reproduction  in  each  case  was 
not  sufficient  departure  from  the  fixed  rule  laid  down  in 
the  Nichols  law  to  suit  said  board.  That  law  was  en- 
acted to  apply  to  the  property  of  express,  telegraph,  and 
telephone  companies  in  Ohio.  It  provided  that  for  tax 
purposes  their  value  shall  be  determined  by  the  selling 
value  of  their  stocks  and  bonds." 

Of  course,   a   decision  against  the  public  service  cor- 


THE  WAY  OUT  147 

porations  would  have  meant  a  shutting  off  of  campaign 
contributions  —  and  that  was  the  real  reason  why  the  tax 
was  found  illegal. 

Privilege  was  beginning  to  take  notice. 

On  May  12,  1902,  the  Republican  legislature  destroyed 
the  board  of  equalization,  creating  in  its  stead  a  board 
of  review  with  unquestioned  power  to  do  just  what  our 
tax  board  had  attempted. 

This  board  of  review  is  appointed  by  the  State  treas- 
urer, State  auditor,  secretary  of  State  and  the  attorney 
general.  Although  the  work  is  entirely  local,  and  the 
expenses  of  the  board  and  the  compensation  of  its  mem- 
bers are  paid  from  local  funds,  the  members  are  not  in 
the  remotest  way  responsible  to  the  city  for  their  actions. 

The  agitation  against  State  appointment  of  these  boards 
has  been  so  persistent  and  the  sentiment  in  favor  of 
home  rule  is  now  so  pronounced  that  it  is  a  matter  of  a 
short  time  only  until  the  legislature  will  be  forced  to  pro- 
vide for  their  local  appointment  or  election. 

This  is,  of  course,  as  it  should  be.  A  municipality 
should  have  right  under  its  eyes  the  men  who  are  doing 
this  important  work.  They  should  be  available  at  all 
times  so  that  they  can  be  quickly  called  to  account.  In 
fact  the  mayor,  through  deputies,  might  well  be  the  taxing 
official  and  the  paramount  question  in  each  election  should 
be,  not  "  Mr.  Mayor,  did  you  see  that  our  money  was 
properly  expended?"  or  "Mr.  Candidate- for-Mayor, 
will  you  see  that  our  money  is  properly  expended?  "  but 
"  Have  you  seen  to  it,  or  will  you  see  to  it  that  the  money 
is  properly  paid  in?  "  With  the  recall  as  part  of  every 
municipal  charter  there  would  be  no  danger  in  placing 


i48  MY  STORY 

all  this  power  in  the  hands  of  one  man  for  on  his  shoulders 
would  rest  all  the  responsibility,  and  he  could  be  easily 
removed  if  he  abused  the  one  or  shirked  the  other. 

The  most  pressing  of  all  civic  problems  is  that  of  mu- 
nicipal home  rule  by  the  people  themselves,  and  it  is  more 
pressing  in  the  United  States  than  elsewhere.  Our  old 
questions  of  State  sovereignty  were  set  at  rest  by  the  logic 
of  the  Civil  War.  In  national  affairs  the  central  govern- 
ment is  now  supreme.  The  only  power  States  can  any 
longer  hope  to  preserve  is  power  over  their  internal  af- 
fairs —  the  exclusive  right  of  home  rule  in  matters  of 
State  concern.  The  readjustment  of  the  relations  of  the 
nation  with  the  State  is  suggestive  and  prophetic  of  a  simi- 
lar readjustment  of  the  relations  of  States  with  their  cities. 
Along  with  the  decline  in  the  political  power  once  asserted 
by  the  States  has  arisen  a  necessity,  if  popular  liberty  is  to 
be  preserved,  for  an  extension  to  municipalities  of  the 
same  principle  of  home  rule  to  which  the  States  themselves 
may  still  lay  claim. 

Municipalities  must  cease  to  be  answerable  to  their 
States,  except  in  matters  of  State  concern,  and  become  an- 
swerable in  matter  of  home  concern  only  to  their  own 
people.  Every  city  should  make  its  own  laws,  design 
its  own  organization,  govern  itself  by  the  ballots  of  its 
own  people,  absolutely  untrammeled  by  outside  dictation 
or  interference,  except  with  reference  to  matters  of  out- 
side concern.  More  and  more  as  the  years  go  by  are  our 
cities  going  to  reach  out  and  demand  such  control  of  their 
own  affairs  from  their  States. 

In  that  way  the  city  will  rapidly  rise;  she  will  learn 
more  about  self-government.  And  the  voice  of  her  peo- 
ple will  be  heard,  direct,  demanding  of  her  officers  the 


THE  WAY  OUT  149 

things  the  people  want;  and  the  officers  will  hear,  and  do 
—  or  lose  their  jobs. 

I  have  shown  that  in  our  people's  fight  in  Cleveland 
and  Ohio  we  did  not  waste  time  on  superficial  issues, 
but  made  our  attacks  directly  on  Privilege's  most  valued 
power  —  its  control  of  taxing  machinery.  I  have  shown 
how  Privilege  used  local,  county  and  State  officers,  city 
councils,  the  State  legislature  and  the  courts  to  frustrate 
our  efforts.  Is  it  not  strange  that  witnessing  the  power 
of  Privilege  through  the  control  of  these  agencies  the 
people  do  not  awake  to  the  fact  that  with  these  agencies  in 
their  hands  they  would  be  supreme? 

Since  we  have  dealt  so  largely  with  the  question  of 
steam  railroads  let  us  consider  the  source  of  their  power 
and  the  remedy  for  the  abuse  of  that  power. 

The  original  idea  behind  the  railroad  was  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  the  idea  which  attaches  to  it  in  common 
thought  to-day,  and  to  the  departure  from  this  original 
idea  we  may  trace  the  evils  now  complained  of.  It  was 
at  first  simply  the  idea  of  providing  a  roadway  or  passage- 
way —  a  highway  for  vehicles  moved  by  steam,  just  as 
there  were  then  roads  or  highways  for  vehicles  moved  by 
horses.  It  did  not  provide  for  exclusive  use,  but  for  gen- 
eral use,  subject  to  a  charge  or  toll,  just  as  charges  were 
made  on  some  horse  roads.  But,  seeing  the  advantage  of 
exclusive  use,  the  companies  building  these  steam  high- 
ways, by  means  of  heavy  or  discriminating  tolls  or  other 
methods,  prevented  general  use,  stopped  competition  and 
made  themselves  the  sole  users.  The  rail  or  steam  roads 
in  the  United  States,  instead  of  becoming  what  they  were 
intended  to  be  as  the  term  applied  to  them,  "  public  high- 
ways," indicates,  became  private  highways. 


1 50  MY  STORY 

And  what  has  been  the  tendency  of  these  private  high- 
ways? When  railroad  building  began  in  the  United 
States  some  sev'enty  years  ago,  each  road  was  separately 
organized  with  its  own  officers  and  distinct  interests.  But 
separate  interests  melted  into  common  interests,  and  many 
small  companies  formed  into  single  large  companies,  and 
one  set  of  officers  effected  economies  that  grew  out  of 
concentration  of  management  and  combination  of  effort. 
This  centralizing  movement  has  proceeded  so  fast  that 
we  can  anticipate  the  end  of  this  perfectly  natural  ten- 
dency if  indeed  we  have  not  already  reached  it.  We  must 
see  the  appearance  of  the  one  directing  mind,  the  kingpin, 
the  dictator,  the  supreme  monarch  in  the  railroad  world. 
Compare  the  powers  of  such  a  man  with  the  powers  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  Who  would  com- 
mand more  men?  Who  receive  the  larger  revenues? 
Who  have  the  larger  pay-roll?  Who  have  greater  con- 
trol of  the  pockets  of  the  people.  In  short,  whose  fa- 
vors would  be  the  more  courted?  One  might  distribute 
honors  by  the  appointment  of  foreign  ministers,  judges, 
etc.,  at  small  pay,  but  which  would  appoint  the  most  men 
at  fifty-thousand-dollar  salaries?  Which  would  have  the. 
dominant  power  —  the  man  representing  the  people,  or 
the  man  representing  privilege?  the  one  voted  for  by  men? 
or  the  one  voted  for  by  shares  of  stock?  Can  interstate 
commerce  commissions  prevent  it?  Why,  railroad  own- 
ers themselves  cannot  prevent  it,  for  it  is  in  the  natural 
order  under  present  conditions.  If  government  control 
failed  before  railroads  were  consolidated,  what  can  it  do 
after  consolidation  is  perfected?  If  discriminating  rates 
have  worked  evils  on  trade  in  the  past,  what  must  be 
their  effect  in  the  future?  If  railroads  have  hitherto  con- 


THE  WAY  OUT  151 

trolled  legislation,  what  will  they  do  when  all  their  power 
is  vested  in  one  man? 

We  see  the  evils  of  this  form  of  special  privilege. 
Now  what  about  the  remedy?  Socialism  would  seek  the 
cure  in  government  ownership.  The  philosophy  of  the 
natural  order,  which  would  promote  competition  and 
place  as  little  power  as  possible  in  the  hands  of  the  gov- 
ernment would  seek  the  remedy  in  throwing  the  steam 
highway  open  to  general  use.  No  wonder  the  Socialists 
point  to  railroad  centralization  under  present  conditions 
as  the  greatest  standing  indictment  of  competition,  a  co- 
lossal example  of  its  utter  failure  and  say  that  competi- 
tion having  broken  down  the  only  alternative  is  govern- 
ment ownership  and  operation.  The  Socialist,  regarding 
competition  as  the  source  of  the  evil,  demands  its  de- 
struction. We  who  hold  that  the  evils  arise  from  a  de- 
nial of  competition  demand  the  abolition  of  law-made 
advantage,  of  governmental  favor. 

Is  not  the  simple,  easy,  practicable  remedy  to  be  found 
in  going  back  to  the  original  conception  underlying  the 
railway  to  make  a  really  u  public  "  highway  for  private 
transportation  companies  or  individuals  to  use?  In  mak- 
ing the  highway  public  property,  should  we  not  destroy 
the  essence  of  monopoly  power  in  the  railroad?  With 
the  States  owning  the  roadbeds  and  the  cities  owning  the 
terminals,  and  no  favor  shown  to  any  transportation  com- 
pany, but  free  play  being  given  to  competition,  would  not 
the  public  get  the  maximum  of  service  at  the  minimum 
of  cost?  What  harm  could  come  from  discriminating 
rates  to  shippers  where  any  number  of  transportation 
companies  were  competing  for  traffic  over  the  same  high- 
way? Would  not  this  establishment  of  the  condition  of 


152  MY  STORY 

freedom  to  individual  enterprise  do  more  than  the  most 
severe  State  or  interstate  regulations  in  fixing  rates?  In- 
deed, this  is  the  only  plan  which  will  establish  competi- 
tion from  all  points  to  all  points.  It  would  mean  just 
plain  freedom,  and  what  could  be  better  for  all  men  and 
for  all  legitimate  and  normal  businesses  than  freedom? 

This  proposal  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  natural 
order  and  in  absolute  accord  with  the  rule  of  public  prac- 
tice on  almost  every  other  kind  of  public  highway  that 
we  have  had  or  now  have.  The  underlying  principle  is  to 
make  the  pathway  a  publicly  owned  and  controlled  way, 
open  to  all  on  equal  terms,  whether  absolutely  free  or  sub- 
ject to  toll.  And  the  end  to  strive  for  in  the  railroad 
problem  is  to  open  such  roadways  to  equal  use  by  all  who 
desire  to  use  them  as  exists  on  public  country  roads  or 
streets,  on  rivers,  canals,  lakes  and  the  very  ocean.  And 
just  as  there  are  police  regulations  for  the  use  of  streets, 
sheriff  regulations  for  the  use  of  the  country  roads,  and 
other  regulations  pertaining  to  the  navigation  and  con- 
dition of  vessels  on  the  rivers,  canals,  or  other  bodies  of 
water  open  to  public  use,  so  on  steam  highways  there 
would  be  necessary  regulations,  as  for  instance,  in  the 
dispatching  and  signaling  of  trains.  But  the  fixing  of 
rates  could  be  safely  left  to  individual  competition  as  on 
the  other  highways. 

In  making  the  change  from  private  to  public  owner- 
ship of  railroads  the  tax  power  should  be  used  rigorously 
so  as  to  put  railroad  property  on  a  level  with  other  taxable 
property.  The  power  to  fix  rates  should  be  used  so  as  to 
reduce  profits  to  a  fair  return  on  the  actual  investment  of 
capital,  excluding  fictitious  capitalization  based  on  fran- 
chise or  special  privilege  value.  This  would  leave  all 


THE  WAY  OUT  153 

the  value  that  does  and  of  right  ought  to  belong  to  the 
railroad  companies.  Then  attempts  should  be  made  to 
buy  all  their  property,  exclusive  of  rolling  stock,  which 
latter  they  would  however  be  free  to  use  in  a  competitive 
business  with  others  over  the  then  public  highway,  which 
they  had  hitherto  treated  as  their  exclusive  and  private 
highway.  An  alternative  would  be  for  the  government 
to  build  steam  highways  and  open  them  to  general  com- 
petition. 

This  but  returns  to  the  original  conception  of  the  rail- 
way, and  indeed  to  almost  every  other  form  of  highway, 
such  as  country  roads,  streets,  turnpikes,  canals,  rivers, 
lakes  and  the  ocean,  in  which  the  public  owns  the  way 
and  on  which  the  business  of  transportation  is  left  to  pri- 
vate enterprise,  subject  of  course  to  control  and  direction 
of  public  officials. 

And  just  as  toll-bridges  are  giving  way  to  free  bridges, 
and  toll-gates  disappearing  from  turnpikes  and  canals,  so, 
in  pursuit  of  economy,  the  minimizing  of  the  numbers 
of  government  officials  and  the  removal  of  temptations 
to  fraud,  should  the  steam  highways  be  open  to  use  with- 
out charge,  the  expense  of  maintenance  being  made  a 
public  burden,  as  is  the  tendency  to  treat  all  other  public 
highways. 

But  if  I  were  ambitious  to  rule  a  country  absolutely,  I 
should  not  try  to  get  control  of  its  railroads  even  under 
the  present  system  when,  as  we  have  seen,  one-man  power 
can  be  carried  to  such  great  lengths.  I  should  devote  my- 
self with  singleness  and  tenacity  of  purpose  to  becoming 
its  landlord.  The  ownership  of  railroads  gives  power  as, 
and  only  as,  it  is  really  ownership  of  land;  the  power  of 
street  car  companies  is  based  on  the  same  thing,  privileges 


154  MY  STORY 

in  the  ownership  of  streets  which  is  land;  the  power  of 
the  Standard  Oil  Company  rests  upon  the  right  of  way 
for  its  pipe  lines,  and  that  right  of  way  is  land.  A  man 
who  controlled  all  the  land  of  a  country  would  be  the  ruler 
of  that  country  no  matter  who  made  its  laws  or  wrote  its 
songs. 

If  this  is  true  why  does  it  not  indicate  to  the  peo- 
ple their  own  source  of  power?  If  a  tyrant  can  rule 
them  by  gaining  control  of  the  land  of  their  country,  why 
cannot  they  destroy  tyranny  by  themselves  resuming  and 
retaining  control  of  their  land? 

But  we  must  have  a  method  whereby  this  can  be  accom- 
plished and  the  method,  I  believe,  is  in  the  single  tax  as 
Henry  George's  philosophy  is  commonly  called  in  this 
country.  The  single  tax  proposes  the  abolition  of  all 
forms  of  taxation  except  a  tax  upon  land  values.  It  would 
eliminate  taxes  upon  industry,  personal  property,  buildings 
and  all  improvements.  It  would  tax  land  values,  includ- 
ing the  value  of  all  franchises  and  public  utilities  operated 
for  private  profit.  It  is  the  community  which  creates  land 
values  and  franchise  values,  therefore  these  values  belong 
to  the  community  and  the  community  should  take  them  in 
taxation. 

To  abolish  taxes  on  industry  would  be  to  reduce  fric- 
tion in  making  things  and  trading  things.  It  would  stim- 
ulate business  and  be  a  blow  to  tyranny,  both  economic 
and  political:  The  effect  of  a  tax  upon  land  values  would 
be  to  force  all  needed  land  into  immediate  use,  and  circum- 
stances would  be  created  under  which  anybody  could  get 
profitable  work  who  wanted  it.  This  would  be  because 
the  demand  for  labor  would  always  exceed  the  supply. 
Any  man  competent  to  do  business  could  find  profitable 


THE  WAY  OUT  155 

business  to  do  because  the  effective  demand  for  goods 
would  always  exceed  the  output.  There  could  be  no  op- 
pressive organization  of  capital,  because  capital  would 
have  no  privileges.  There  could  be  no  coercive  labor 
unions  because  every  worker  would  be  his  own  all-suffi- 
cient union.  And  there  would  be  no  tyrannical  govern- 
ment because  all  the  people  would  be  economically  free,  a 
condition  that  makes  tyranny,  either  economic  or  political, 
impossible. 

These  are  the  principles  which  must  be  put  into  practice 
if  our  cities  and  our  States  are  to  be  freed  from  the  domi- 
nation of  Privilege. 


XVI 

GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION 

OUR  movement  early  commenced  to  have  an  influence 
outside  of  Cleveland,  and  it  was  in  the  midst  of  my  first 
mayoralty  campaign  that  I  received  a  call  from  Columbus, 
the  State  capital,  to  help  in  a  contest  then  going  on  be- 
tween that  city  and  its  street  railroad  company.  I  had 
my  hands  pretty  full  in  Cleveland,  but  I  went  down  to  Co- 
lumbus to  give  such  assistance  as  I  could,  taking  Professor 
Bemis  with  me. 

Some  of  the  grants  to  the  Columbus  Street  Railway 
Company  had  been  made  before  the  State  legislature 
passed  a  law  which  limited  the  life  of  all  street  railway 
franchises  to  twenty-five  years.  Some  of  them  had  already 
expired,  some  had  been  granted  without  date  of  expiration. 
A  citizens'  committee  of  twenty-five  and  sixteen  out  of  the 
nineteen  members  of  the  city  council  invited  me  to  address 
the  council  committee  of  the  whole  on  the  street  car  ques- 
tion. I  made  a  number  of  speeches  which,  combined  with 
the  articles  which  appeared  daily  in  the  Columbus  Press 
Post  from  Professor  Bemis's  pen,  did  something  to  en- 
lighten the  citizens  on  the  real  status  of  the  street  railway 
controversy. 

I  offered  to  take  the  grants  on  favorable  terms,  fair  to 
the  old  company,  agreeing  to  buy  the  physical  property, 
the  valuation  to  be  reached  by  negotiation  or  arbitration, 
and  to  operate  at  three-cent  fare.  The  council  refused  to 

156 


GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION        157 

consider  my  proposition  and  the  grant  was  made  to  the  old 
company,  but  so  amended  as  to  provide  for  seven  tickets 
for  a  quarter  until  the  receipts  of  the  company  should 
amount  to  $1,750,000  annually,  and  then  the  fare  was  to 
be  reduced  to  eight  tickets  for  a  quarter.  The  courts  up- 
held the  validity  of  this  grant,  but  the  condition  of  eight 
tickets  for  a  quarter  has  never  been  complied  with. 
Whether  the  street  railroad  company  has  actually  swindled 
the  public  or  whether  they  have  shuffled  the  bookkeeping 
in  such  a  way  as  never  to  reach  the  limit  I  never  have  been 
able  to  find  out.  At  a  five-cent  fare  Cleveland  was  taking 
in  $6,000,000  a  year,  so  it  is  perfectly  clear,  after  allow- 
ing for  the  difference  in  population  in  the  two  cities,  that 
Columbus  couldn't  fail  to  reach  the  mark  of  one  million 
and  three-quarters. 

The  judge  who  rendered  the  decision  in  favor  of  the 
street  railway  company,  holding  that  some  of  their  grants 
were  perpetual  unless  the  legislature  repealed  them,  was 
Judge  A.  N.  Summers.  Several  months  before  his  de- 
cision was  made  public  a  number  of  us  learned  what  it 
would  be.  My  knowledge  of  it  came  to  me  in  a  confi- 
dential way  so  I  could  not  make  it  public.  Stock  ad- 
vanced from  a  very  low  price  to  a  very  high  figure  while 
this  case  was  pending.  It  was  long  drawn  out  and  be- 
tween the  time  that  the  decision  was  known  and  the  time 
that  it  was  made  public  the  Republican  State  Convention 
of  1903  was  held  and  nominated  Judge  Summers  for  the 
supreme  bench.  In  the  State  campaign  that  year  I  publicly 
made  charges  against  Judge  Summers  and  offered  to  di- 
vide my  time  with  him  or  any  representative  he  might 
select  to  come  to  any  of  our  meetings  and  explain  this  re- 
markable transaction.  The  judge  never  answered  me  on 


158  MY  STORY 

the  stump.  His  friends  said  the  knowledge  of  the  decision 
leaked  out  through  a  stenographer.  My  charge  was  that 
stock  gamblers  were  profiting  by  this  knowledge  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  judge  on  the  other  since  he  was  receiv- 
ing the  support  of  the  public  service  corporations  in  his 
campaign.  I  insisted  that  whether  his  position  was  due 
to  carelessness  or  to  viciousness  the  people  ought  not  to 
elect  him  to  the  high  office  of  supreme  court  judge.  He 
was  elected.  This  is  a  way  public  service  corporations 
have  of  rewarding  faithful  servants.  When  all  is  said 
and  done,  I  think  he  was  not  much  worse  than  the  rest  of 
the  court  and  a  rather  better  lawyer  than  most  of  them. 
The  people  had  not  been  sufficiently  aroused  to  hold  judges 
accountable  for  their  actions.  Ohio  elects  her  supreme 
court  judges  for  six  years  and  by  reason  of  changing  from 
annual  to  biennial  State  elections  Judge  Summers's  term 
held  over  an  additional  year.  It  was  not  until  the  last 
State  election  (November,  1910)  therefore  that  he  was  a 
candidate  for  re-election  and  then  he  was  defeated.  The 
people  are  beginning  to  wake  up  and  Privilege  is  finding 
it  somewhat  more  difficult  to  bestow  rewards  of  this  kind 
now  than  ten  years  ago. 

While  the  activities  described  in  previous  chapters  in 
behalf  of  the  equalization  of  taxes  and  the  promotion  of 
public  improvements  and  good  government  were  going 
forward  the  other  promise  of  our  platform  —  to  try  to 
give  three-cent  fare  on  the  street  railroads  —  was  not 
neglected.  The  people  looked  upon  this  as  the  impor- 
tant question,  but  in  the  beginning  comparatively  few  of 
them  realized  the  intimate  relation  between  it  and  all  the 
other  problems  we  were  trying  to  solve  and  they  did  not 
in  the  least  comprehend  the  difficulties  in  the  way.  There 


GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION        159 

were  many  who  clamored  for  the  immediate  redemption 
of  the  three-cent  fare  pledge  without  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  legal  obstacles  which  blocked  our  path  or  the  al- 
most insurmountable  barrier  which  the  coalition  between 
the  public  service  corporations  and  the  courts  presented. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Cleveland's  street  railways 
were  at  this  time  controlled  by  two  companies,  popularly 
known  as  the  Big  Con  and  the  Little  Con.  The  last 
named  was  Mr.  Hanna's  company  and  the  Big  Con  was 
the  result  of  the  consolidation  of  the  Andrews-Stanley  in- 
terests with  my  lines.  As  has  already  been  stated  I  had 
sold  all  my  Cleveland  street  railway  interests  in  1894—95. 
The  contest  to  secure  three-cent  fare  was  between  the  city 
and  these  two  companies  which  had  a  common  interest  in 
opposing  anything  which  threatened  their  monopoly  of 
the  city's  streets.  They  acted  as  a  unit  and  in  1903  they 
consolidated.  The  reader  will  be  less  apt  to  be  confused 
if  these  interests  are  referred  to  from  the  beginning  as 
one  company  and  this  I  shall  do. 

The  State  laws  had  been  carefully  framed  and  as  care- 
fully guarded  to  protect  existing  street  railroads  in  their 
privileges  and  to  prevent  competing  lines,  and  it  was  only 
through  competition  that  we  could  hope  to  secure  a  reduc- 
tion in  fare. 

There  were  three  ways  in  which  grants  could  be  made 
and  we  shall  consider  them  in  the  order  of  their  respective 
advantages  to  Privilege. 

The  first  and  easiest  provided  for  the  most  valuable 
form  of  street  railway  franchise,  namely,  the  renewal  of 
an  expiring  grant.  This  could  be  made  only  to  the  com- 
pany in  possession  of  the  grant  and  was  not  hampered  by 
restrictions  of  any  kind. 


160  MY  STORY 

The  second  provided  for  extensions  to  existing  lines  and 
required  consent  of  property  owners  along  the  proposed 
route. 

The  third,  for  making  grants  for  new  lines,  was  so  com- 
plicated as  to  make  it  next  to  impossible  to  build  a  com- 
peting railroad. 

These  were  the  legal  conditions  which  faced  us,  and 
it  must  be  remembered  that  they  were  prescribed  by 
State  statutes  and  that  the  municipality  had  no  recourse 
but  the  courts,  and  the  courts,  as  has  already  been 
^own,  were  operating  in  the  interests  of  the  public  service 
.  orporations.  We  were  undecided  as  to  which  was  the  wiser 
course  for  us  to  pursue, —  to  have  council  make  a  grant 
covering  a  number  of  streets,  or  one  for  a  small  branch 
from  which  future  extensions  could  be  made.  As  the 
question  of  grants  for  new  lines  had  never  been  tested  in 
the  courts  we  felt  pretty  sure  that  we  should  be  defeated 
no  matter  which  horn  of  the  dilemma  we  took.  We  had 
not  only  to  decide  upon  the  policy  of  the  administration, 
but  to  find  someone  to  whom  the  grants  could  be  made 
who  would  not  only  be  able  to  finance  the  enterprise  but 
whom  we  knew  to  be  absolutely  trustworthy. 

On  December  6,  1901,  there  was  introduced  into  the 
city  council  the  first  legislation  for  the  establishment  of 
new  street  railroad  routes  upon  which  the  rate  of  fare 
should  not  exceed  three  cents.  On  February  10,  1902, 
one  bid  was  received,  accompanied  by  a  deposit  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  This  bid  came  from  J.  B.  Hoefgen,  a 
man  who  got  his  first  street  railroad  experience  with 
me  in  Indianapolis  years  before,  and  now  an  independent 
operator  located  in  New  York.  He  was  declared  the 
low  bidder  and  the  grant  was  made  to  him  March  17, 


GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION        161 

1902.  We  knew  he  wouldn't  sell  out  to  the  old  com- 
pany or  fail  to  keep  faith  with  the  city  in  any  other  way. 
The  making  of  this  grant,  which  covered  a  large  number 
of  streets,  had  been  preceded  by  a  property  owners'  consent 
war  extending  over  several  months.  Representatives  of 
the  street  railways  followed  closely  on  the  heels  of  the 
men  who  were  getting  consents  for  Hoefgen  and  brought 
every  possible  pressure  to  bear  to  have  these  consents  re- 
voked. It  was  like  a  game  of  battledore  and  shuttlecock 
with  an  organized  force  playing  it  for  each  side.  The 
courts  held  that  property  owners  had  a  right  to  change 
their  minds  up  to  the  time  the  ordinance  was  passed. 
Some  of  them  did  so  seven  or  eight  times  or  as  often  as 
they  were  paid  to.  The  Hoefgen  Company  finally  se- 
cured a  lot  of  consents  at  the  eleventh  hour  and  turned 
them  in  just  before  the  ordinance  was  passed  when  it  was 
too  late  for  the  railroad  companies  to  secure  revocations. 

Council  could  not  make  a  valid  grant  unless  a  majority 
of  the  property  owners  representing  the  feet  front  along 
each  street  of  the  proposed  routes  consented  in  writing  to 
the  construction  of  a  street  railroad,  and  then  only  to  the 
company  offering  to  carry  passengers  at  the  lowest  rate  of 
fare.  If  the  street  railroad  company,  through  property 
owners'  consents,  could  get  control  of  just  one  street  in  a 
group  of  streets  to  be  covered  by  proposed  new  lines  coun- 
cil was  rendered  helpless,  and  though  a  majority  of  the 
citizens  of  the  entire  city  favored  the  new  grant  they  had 
no  way  of  giving  expression  to  their  will  in  the  matter. 

To  overcome  this  difficulty  we  early  found  it  necessary 
to  change  the  names  of  streets.  The  three-cent  line 
in  question  was  to  run  upon  Hanover,  Fulton,  Willett 
streets  and  Rhodes  avenue,  a  continuous  thoroughfare 


1 62  MY  STORY 

with  four  different  names.  The  low  fare  people  had  a 
majority  of  consents  on  Fulton  street  and  Rhodes  avenue, 
but  lacked  a  majority  on  Hanover  and  Willett.  Council 
changed  the  name  of  the  entire  thoroughfare  to  Rhodes 
avenue  and  in  this  way  wiped  out  the  minority  on  Han- 
over and  Willett  with  the  majority  on  Fulton  and  Rhodes. 
This  method  of  attack  or  defense  was  persisted  in  pretty 
thoroughly  by  the  administration. 

When  the  courts  declared  the  Hoefgen  grant  invalid, 
as  of  course  they  did,  we  asked  to  have  this  order  made 
final.  We  wanted  to  clear  the  way  for  immediate  action 
in  another  direction.  This  done,  we  now  proceeded  to 
try  the  alternative  previously  alluded  to.  We  picked  out 
eleven  routes  and  required  a  bond  in  the  form  of  a  cash 
deposit  of  $10,000  to  be  made  with  each  bid.  This  made 
it  necessary  for  the  old  company,  as  a  matter  of  self- 
defense,  to  be  the  lowest  bidder  on  all  ten  routes,  and  to 
put  up  a  deposit  of  $110,000.  The  new  company  had 
only  to  succeed  on  one  and  to  put  up  a  deposit  of  $10,000. 
Having  secured  a  grant  on  one  route  they  could  secure 
further  grants  as  extensions  to  their  original  line.  No 
deposits  were  necessary  on  extensions  though  property 
owners'  consents  were  required.  /  was  using,  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  city,  exactly  the  same  methods  to  secure 
grants  for  the  low  fare  people  which  the  Hanna-Simms 
Company  had  used  to  prevent  grants  to  me  when  I  was 
seeking  them  as  a  street  railway  operator  back  in  1879. 
This  plan  was  persisted  in  and  was  the  one  which  eventu- 
ally won  the  victory  for  the  city  and  vindicated  our  cam- 
paign promises.  And  by  a  curious  coincidence  too  the 
first  three-cent  grants  were  for  routes  over  part  of  the 
same  territory  that  was  involved  in  that  1879  contest. 


Surveying  at  Franklin  Circle  for  three-cent  fare  line 


Photos  by  L.  Van  Oeyen 


Laying  the  first  rails  for  the  three-cent  line 


GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION        163 

But  before  we  were  successful  many  extraordinary  things 
happened,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the  practical  de- 
struction of  the  city  government  of  Cleveland. 

Privilege  was  thoroughly  aroused  now,  and  had  evi- 
dently arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  safety  from  our  agita- 
tion was  to  be  secured  only  by  killing  it  and  everybody 
connected  with  it.  Two  days  after  the  first  three-cent  fare 
ordinances  were  introduced  in  the  city  council  a  press  dis- 
patch reading  as  follows  was  sent  out  from  Columbus : 

"December  8,  1901. 

"  A  suit  to  test  the  constitutionality  of  the  Cleveland  law  under 
which  the  city  is  now  being  governed  was  filed  in  the  supreme 
court  this  afternoon. 

"  It  is  a  quo  warranto  suit  styled  the  State  of  Ohio,  ex  rel 
Attorney  General  vs.  M.  W.  Beacom  and  the  other  members  of 
the  board  of  control,  otherwise  known  as  Mayor  Johnson's  cabinet. 
It  is  based  upon  the  contention  that  the  act  of  May  16,  1891, 
applies  only  to  the  city  of  Cleveland  and  is  therefore  special  legis- 
lation." 

The  suit  was  brought  by  an  obscure  lawyer,  but  it  was 
not  at  all  difficult  to  trace  it  to  the  real  perpetrators  —  the 
public  service  corporations  of  Cleveland.  In  the  latter 
part  of  June,  1902,  the  supreme  court  declared  unconstitu- 
tional the  charter  under  which  Cleveland  had  been  oper- 
ating for  about  twelve  years,  though  its  legality  had  never 
before  been  questioned.  Ten  days  before  our  three-cent- 
fare  franchises  were  to  be  bid  for,  the  supreme  court,  upon 
application  of  Attorney-General  Sheets,  enjoined  the  city 
of  Cleveland  from  making  any  public  service  grants  of 
any  kind.  Other  cities  of  the  State  were  operating  under 
charters  just  as  "  unconstitutional  "  as  Cleveland's,  but 


164  MY  STORY 

not  one  was  enjoined.  All  other  cities  were  left  free  to 
carry  on  their  own  affairs.  By  these  rulings  of  the  su- 
preme court  our  hands  were  literally  tied  in  our  street 
railway  fight  and  they  were  kept  tied  for  eleven  long 
months. 

During  the  summer  of  1902,  a  special  session  of  the 
State  legislature,  inspired  by  Senator  Hanna,  was  called  to 
adopt  a  new  municipal  code  —  one  which  should  apply 
to  all  cities  of  the  State,  and  remove  from  Cleveland  the 
obloquy  of  "  special  legislation." 

Though  the  legislature  was  importuned  and  beseeched 
to  give  to  all  the  cities  of  Ohio  the  Cleveland  form  of  gov- 
ernment, known  as  the  federal  plan,  and  thus  provide  a 
uniform  system  in  accordance  with  the  constitutional  re- 
quirement, and  at  the  same  time  give  an  excellent  plan  of 
municipal  government,  they  refused  to  do  so.  Instead, 
they  went  to  Cincinnati,  a  city  governed  by  a  self-con- 
fessed boss  who  issued  his  orders  by  telephone,  for  the 
model  of  that  code.  The  new  code  provided  for  board 
governed  cities  and  is  very  advantageous  to  government  in 
the  interests  of  Privilege.  Its  divided  power  and  no  re- 
sponsibility prevent  the  people  from  locating  the  sources 
of  corruption. 

Aimed  directly  at  Cleveland  and  clearly  intended  to  re- 
duce the  mayor  to  a  figure-head,  the  blow  went  wide  of 
the  mark,  as  later  history  will  prove. 

When  my  first  term  as  mayor  was  drawing  to  its  close 
in  the  early  spring  of  1903  and  we  took  an  inventory  — 
not  of  the  things  we  had  accomplished  —  but  of  the  things 
we  had  been  prevented  from  doing  we  found  that  we  had 
kept  the  courts  pretty  fairly  busy  as  the  following  record 
of  injunctions  indicates : 


GOVERNMENT  BY  INJUNCTION        165 

No.  i. 

July  22,  1901. —  City  board  of  equalization  enjoined  from  in- 
creasing the  valuation  of  the  Cleveland  Electric  Railway  Company. 

No.  2. 

Nov.   9,    1901. —  Enjoined    from   entering   into  contracts   for 
cheaper  street  lighting. 

No.  3. 

Nov.  9,    1901. —  Enjoined   from  entering  into  a  contract  for 
cheaper  vapor  lighting. 

No.  4. 

April  6,  1902. —  Enjoined  by  common  pleas  court  from  carrying 
out  three-cent  railroad  franchise. 

No.  5. 

April  7,  1902. —  Enjoined  from  permitting  construction  of  three- 
cent-fare  railroad. 

No.  6. 

May  n,  1902. —  Enjoined  from  carrying  out  three-cent  fran- 
chise by  circuit  court. 

No.  7. 

June  30,  1902. —  Injunction  against  three-cent  franchise  made 
perpetual. 

No.  8. 

July  19,  1902. —  Enjoined  from  considering  the  granting  of  any 
franchises.     Circuit  court. 

No.  9. 

Aug.  9,  1902. —  Temporary  injunction  by  supreme  court  against 
considering  the  granting  of  any  franchises. 

No.   10. 

Aug.   15,   1902. —  Permanent  injunction  from  considering  the 
granting  of  any  franchise. 


1 66  MY  STORY 

No.  ii. 

Nov.  19,  1902. —  Injunction  by  the  supreme  court  removing  the 
police  department  from  the  control  of  the  administration. 

No.   12. 

Dec.  20,  1902. —  Enjoined  from  making  any  investigation  into 
inequalities  in  taxation. 

No.   13. 

March  6,  1903. —  Enjoined  from  making  contracts  for  paving 
of  streets. 

These  injunctions  were  the  first  of  the  more  than  fifty 
which  hampered  the  progress  of  the  people's  movement 
in  Cleveland.  Injunctions  got  to  be  so  common  during 
my  administration  and  were  made  to  serve  on  such  a  va- 
riety of  occasions  that  the  practice  gave  rise  to  the  witti- 
cism that  "  if  a  man  doesn't  like  the  way  Tom  Johnson 
wears  his  hat  he  goes  off  and  gets  out  an  injunction  restrain- 
ing him  from  wearing  it  that  way."  Everything  we  at- 
tempted was  made  the  object  of  misrepresentation,  vilifi- 
cation and  attack.  My  part  in  our  various  activities  and 
my  aggressiveness  naturally  drew  the  fiercest  wrath  and 
the  bitterest  abuse  to  me  personally. 


XVII 

MAKING  MEN 

THE  chief  value  of  any  social  movement  lies  perhaps  in 
the  influence  it  exerts  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  men 
and  women  who  engage  in  it.  In  selecting  my  cabinet  and 
in  making  other  appointments  I  looked  about  for  men 
who  would  be  efficient  and  when  I  found  one  in  whom 
efficiency  and  a  belief  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  de- 
mocracy were  combined  I  knew  that  here  was  the  highest 
type  of  public  officer  possible  to  get.  I  have  stated  that 
I  made  a  good  many  mistakes  in  my  first  appointments, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  innumerable  problems 
faced  us.  It  was  like  organizing  a  new  government,  but 
more  difficult,  for  we  had  the  old  established  order  with 
all  its  imperfections,  its  false  standards  and  the  results  of 
years  of  wrong-doing  to  deal  with.  We  really  did  not 
have  a  fair  field  in  spite  of  the  excellent  plan  of  city  gov- 
ernment which  Cleveland  had  when  I  was  first  elected. 
Men  had  become  contaminated  with  the  spirit  of  laxity  at 
best,  of  exploitation  at  worst,  but  I  soon  learned  that  at 
bottom  men  are  all  right.  They  would  rather  be  decent 
than  otherwise,  and  if  they  have  a  chance  to  do  really  use- 
ful work  they  want  to  do  it.  The  greatest  thing  our 
Cleveland  movement  did  was  to  make  men.  It  couldn't 
be  enjoined  from  doing  that.  The  questions  we  raised  not 
only  attracted  better  men  —  men  who  couldn't  be  inter- 

167 


1 68  MY  STORY 

ested  in  politics  when  it  dealt  chiefly  with  spoils, —  but  it 
also  brought  out  the  very  best  in  men  of  less  exalted  ideals. 

Many  of  my  appointments  gave  offense  to  those  within 
my  own  party  and  excited  criticism  outside.  In  order  to 
avoid  criticism  one  must  follow  precedent  even  when  prece- 
dent is  bad.  According  to  established  custom  valuable 
jobs  belong  by  all  that  is  holy  in  politics  to  true  and  tried 
party  workers.  They  are  rewards  for  the  workers.  In- 
stead of  awarding  these  jobs  as  prizes  I  looked  about  for 
men  best  fitted  for  specialized  public  service.  The  minis- 
ter of  my  church,  a  man  of  rare  spirit  and  humanitarian 
impulses,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  charities  and  cor- 
rections, while  I  chose  for  city  auditor  a  genial  and  pop- 
ular Irishman  who  had  been  a  liquor  dealer.  This  ap- 
pointment was  offensive  to  the  Puritanical  element,  while 
those  who  insisted  on  a  "  business  man's  government  "  dis- 
approved of  the  appointment  of  the  minister.  A  college 
professor  whose  radicalism  had  resulted  in  enforced  resig- 
nation from  several  colleges  was  given  charge  of  the  city 
water  works  with  its  hundreds  of  employes,  much  to  the 
indignation  of  the  Democratic  organization.  A  delega- 
tion from  the  Buckeye  Club,  an  influential  Democratic  so- 
ciety, called  upon  me  to  protest  and  ended  by  saying : 

"  You've  got  to  discharge  the  professor  or  we'll  fight 
the  administration." 

When  they  w'ere  all  through  I  asked  pleasantly : 

"  Is  that  your  ultimatum,  gentlemen?  " 

They  answered  with  emphasis  that  it  was.  I  smiled 
and  said: 

"  Very  well ;  I  think  I  ought  to  tell  you  now  that  I  am 
not  going  to  discharge  the  professor." 

A  brilliant  young  college  graduate  just  working  his  way 


MAKING  MEN  169 

into  practice  was  made  city  solicitor,  to  the  amused  scorn 
of  some  of  the  wiseacres  in  the  profession.  An  aggres- 
sive Populist,  regarded  by  practically  the  whole  community 
as  a  wild-eyed  anarchist,  was  entrusted  with  the  impor- 
tant office  of  city  clerk,  a  young  Republican  councilman 
was  selected  to  take  charge  of  the  department  of  public 
works  and  a  Republican  policeman  was  raised  from  the 
ranks  and  made  chief. 

There  were  plenty  of  predictions  of  the  disasters  sure 
to  follow  this  unheard-of  manner  of  making  appointments, 
but  time  justified  them  so  completely  that,  though  I  was 
criticized  for  many  things,  even  my  bitterest  enemies  didn't 
charge  me  with  making  weak  appointments. 

As  time  went  on  our  organization  gathered  to  itself  a 
group  of  young  fellows  of  a  type  rarely  found  in  politics  — 
college  men  with  no  personal  ambitions  to  serve,  students 
of  social  problems  known  to  the  whole  community  as  disin- 
terested, high-minded,  clean-lived  individuals.  Over  and 
over  again  the  short-sighted  majority  which  cannot  rec- 
ognize a  great  moral  movement  when  it  appears  as  a  po- 
litical movement,  and  which  knows  nothing  of  the  con- 
tagion of  a  great  idea  attributed  the  interest  and  activity 
of  these  young  fellows  to  some  baneful  influence  on  my 
part.  "  Johnson  has  them  hypnotized,"  was  the  usual  ex- 
planation of  their  devotion  to  our  common  cause. 

In  selecting  its  servants  Privilege  has  never  cared  a 
straw  to  which  party  men  belong.  It  is  quite  as  ready  to 
use  those  of  one  political  faith  as  those  of  another.  The 
people  have  been  slow  to  profit  by  the  lessons  they  might 
have  learned  from  the  methods  of  their  exploiters. 

Though  our  work  had  been  hampered  by  injunctions  at 
every  turn  and  on  every  possible  occasion  our  political 


1 70  MY  STORY 

strength  was  growing  and  the  personnel  of  the  administra- 
tion improving  in  every  way.  More  and  more  the  men 
connected  with  us  were  coming  to  comprehend  the  eco- 
nomic questions  underlying  our  agitation. 

When  the  time  for  another  mayoralty  election  came 
round  we  had  carried  four  successive  elections,  had  a  Dem- 
ocratic administration,  a  Democratic  council,  a  majority 
of  the  county  offices,  Democrats  in  the  school  council  and  a 
Democratic  school  director  in  the  person  of  Starr  Cadwal- 
lader,  and  for  the  first  time  in  many  years  there  were 
Cuyahoga  county  Democrats  in  the  State  legislature.  Not 
injunctions,  not  court  decisions,  not  acts  of  the  State  legis- 
lature nor  all  of  these  agencies  combined  had  been  able  to 
prevent  the  people  from  expressing  their  will  through  their 
ballots.  I  was  more  eager  to  succeed  myself  as  mayor 
than  I  could  possibly  have  been  had  our  plans  been  per- 
mitted to  work  out  without  encountering  the  opposition 
of  Privilege. 

If  Big  Business  was  somewhat  passive  in  the  campaign 
of  1901,  quite  the  reverse  was  true  in  1903. 

I  had  by  this  time  incurred  the  enmity  of  the  tax-escap- 
ing public  service  corporations  and  big  landlords  and  of 
the  low  dive-keepers  and  gamblers,  all  of  whose  privileges 
had  suffered  under  my  administration.  The  opposition 
of  these  interests  was  augmented  by  various  other  groups 
allied  with  them  in  greater  or  less  degree.  Many  of  the 
church  and  temperance  people  opposed  me  because  the 
town  was  wide  open,  while  some  of  the  saloons  opposed 
me  because  the  night  and  Sunday  closing  laws  were  too 
rigidly  enforced.  The  civil  service  reformers  and  the 
party  spoilsmen  had  their  grievances,  the  former  because 
we  had  not  practiced  the  merit  system  with  regard  to  city 


MAKING  MEN  171 

employes,  the  latter  because  we  had.  The  Municipal 
Association,  an  organization  supposed  to  be  distinctly  non- 
partisan  and  above  the  influences  of  Privilege,  having  for 
its  object  the  consideration  and  recommendation  of  candi- 
dates to  voters,  issued  an  eleventh  hour  manifesto  showing 
that  the  city  administration  had  been  very  lax  in  enforcing 
some  of  the  laws  most  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the 
municipality. 

Let  me  repeat  what  I  have  previously  said,  that  it  isn't 
necessary  for  Privilege  to  bribe  men  with  money,  with 
promises,  or  even  with  the  hope  of  personal  reward,  if  it 
can  succeed  in  fooling  them.  It  is  this  insidious  power, 
this  intangible  thing  which  is  hard  to  detect  and  harder  to 
prove,  this  indirect  influence  which  is  the  most  dangerous 
factor  in  politics  to-day. 

The  Republicans  nominated  Harvey  D.  Goulder,  a 
leading  lawyer,  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
and  a  prominent  member  of  the  Union  Club.  I  conducted 
my  campaign  on  the  lines  of  my  earlier  contests  and  when 
Mr.  Goulder  refused  to  debate  the  issues  —  three-cent 
fare,  municipal  ownership  of  street  car  lines,  and  just  tax- 
ation —  with  me  I  conceived  the  idea  of  sending  a 
stenographer  to  his  meetings  to  take  verbatim  reports  of 
his  speeches  in  order  that  I  might  reply  to  them  in  my 
own  meetings.  The  nearest  we  ever  came  to  a  personal 
meeting  was  at  a  political  gathering  to  which  we  had  both 
been  invited.  When  I  arrived  Mr.  Goulder's  haste  to  get 
away  and  his  evident  ill-nature  at  being  caught  in  the  same 
room  with  me  caused  him  to  say  some  unpleasant  things 
about  the  Jewish  club  whose  guests  we  were,  from  which 
it  was  inferred  that  he  was  accusing  someone  in  the  hall 
of  having  stolen  his  overcoat.  The  coat  had  simply  been 


i72  MY  STORY 

mislaid  and  was  soon  found.  I  felt  sorry  for  Mr.  Goul- 
der.  I  didn't  think  he  really  intended  to  insinuate  that 
the  coat  had  been  stolen,  but  the  incident  made  him  a  lot 
of  trouble. 

In  order  to  curry  favor  with  union  labor  the  Repub- 
licans conceived  the  brilliant  idea  of  nominating  for  vice 
mayor  Solomon  Sontheimer,  president  of  the  Central  La- 
bor Union.  In  their  speeches  some  of  the  Republicans 
referred  to  the  widely  separated  interests  represented  on 
the  ticket  by  Mr.  Goulder  and  Mr.  Sontheimer  as  a  "  mar- 
riage between  capital  and  labor."  This  marriage  was 
doomed  to  quick  divorce,  for  on  election  day,  when  I  was 
elected  over  Mr.  Goulder  by  about  six  thousand  votes, 
Charles  W.  Lapp,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  vice 
mayor,  won  over  the  Republican,  Mr.  Sontheimer,  by  up- 
wards of  ten  thousand.  It  had  been  a  bitter  campaign 
and  nothing  was  left  undone  by  the  Interests  through  the 
Republican  organization,  aided  by  a  goodly  number  of 
Democrats,  to  beat  us.  The  enemy  had  an  unlimited 
purse,  but  how  extensively  it  was  used  could  only  be 
guessed  at.  In  1901,  it  will  be  remembered,  I  was  the 
only  Democrat  elected  on  the  general  ticket;  in  1903  we 
carried  every  office  on  that  ticket.  Newton  D.  Baker 
was  elected  city  solicitor,  Henry  D.  Coffinberry,  city  treas- 
urer, J.  P.  Madigan,  city  auditor,  and  for  directors  of 
public  service,  Harris  R.  Cooley,  William  J.  Springborn 
and  Daniel  E.  Leslie.  With  few  exceptions  these  officers 
were  already  serving  the  city  as  appointees  of  the  mayor 
under  the  old  plan  of  city  government,  and  we  worked 
together  now  as  we  had  then  like  one  harmonious  family. 
Most  of  these  officers  cooperated  as  heartily  with  me  as  if 


MAKING  MEN  173 

they  were  still  subject  to  appointment  and  removal  by  the 
chief  executive. 

Mr.  Baker,  though  the  youngest  of  us,  was  really  head 
of  the  cabinet  and  principal  adviser  to  us  all.  He  has 
been  an  invaluable  public  servant  and  is  still  city  solicitor, 
having  been  returned  to  office  in  each  successive  election, 
even  in  1909,  when  I  was  defeated  with  the  majority  of 
our  ticket.  Newton  Baker  as  a  lawyer  was  pitted  against 
the  biggest  lawyers  in  the  State.  No  other  city  solicitor 
has  ever  had  the  same  number  of  cases  crowded  into  his 
office  in  the  same  length  of  time,  nor  so  large  a  crop  of  in- 
junctions to  respond  to,  and  in  my  judgment  there  isn't 
another  man  in  the  State  who  could  have  done  the  work  so 
well.  He  ranks  with  the  best,  highest-paid,  corporation 
lawyers  in  ability  and  has  held  his  public  office  at  a  con- 
stant personal  sacrifice.  This  low-paid  city  official  has 
seen  every  day  in  the  courtroom  lawyers  getting  often  five 
times  the  fee  for  bringing  a  suit  that  he  got  for  defending 
it.  He  did  for  the  people  for  love  what  other  lawyers 
did  for  the  corporations  for  money. 

Mr.  Cooley,  who  had  been  at  the  head  of  the  city's 
charitable  and  correctional  institutions  from  the  very  be- 
ginning of  my  administration,  continued  in  this  depart- 
ment, the  duties  of  the  new  public  service  board  being 
divided  upon  lines  which  assigned  to  him  this  field  for 
which  he  was  so  admirably  adapted.  If  service  of  a 
higher  order  on  humanitarian  lines  has  ever  been  rendered 
to  any  municipality  than  that  rendered  by  Mr.  Cooley  to 
Cleveland,  I  have  yet  to  hear  of  it.  His  convictions  as 
to  the  causes  of  poverty  and  crime  coincided  with  my  own. 
Believing  as  we  did  that  society  was  responsible  for  pov- 


174  MY  STORY 

erty  and  that  poverty  was  the  cause  of  much  of  the  crime 
in  the  world,  we  had  no  enthusiasm  for  punishing  indi- 
viduals. We  were  agreed  that  the  root  of  the  evil  must 
be  destroyed,  and  that  in  the  meantime  delinquent  men, 
women  and  children  were  to  be  cared  for  by  the  society 
which  had  wronged  them  —  not  as  objects  of  charity,  but 
as  fellow-beings  who  had  been  deprived  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  get  on  in  the  world.  With  this  broad  basis  on 
which  to  build,  the  structure  of  this  department  of  Cleve- 
land's city  government  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
whole  civilized  world.  How  small  the  work  of  philan- 
thropists with  their  gifts  of  dollars  appears,  compared  to 
the  work  of  this  man  who  gave  men  hope  —  a  man  who 
while  doing  charitable  things  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact 
that  justice  and  not  charity  would  have  to  solve  the  prob- 
lems with  which  he  was  coping. 

In  the  very  beginning  Mr.  Cooley  came  to  me  and  said, 
'  The  immediate  problem  that  is  facing  me  is  these  men 
in  the  workhouse,  some  three  hundred  of  them.  I've 
been  preaching  the  Golden  Rule  for  many  years;  now  I'm 
literally  challenged  to  put  it  into  practice.  I  know  very 
well  that  we  shall  be  misunderstood,  criticized  and  prob- 
ably severely  opposed  if  we  do  to  these  prisoners  as  we 
would  be  done  by." 

"  Well,  if  it's  right,  go  ahead  and  do  it  anyhow,"  I 
answered,  and  that  was  the  beginning  of  a  parole  system 
that  pardoned  eleven  hundred  and  sixty  men  and  women 
in  the  first  two  years  of  our  administration.  To  show 
what  an  innovation  this  was  it  is  well  to  state  that  in  the 
same  length  of  time  the  previous  administration  had  par- 
doned eighty-four.  The  correctness  of  the  principle  on 
which  the  parole  system  is  based  and  the  good  results  of 


MAKING  MEN  175 

its  practice  are  now  so  generally  accepted  that  it  could 
not  again  encounter  the  opposition  it  met  when  Mr.  Cooley 
instituted  it  in  Cleveland.  The  newspapers  and  the 
churches  —  those  two  mighty  makers  of  public  opinion  — 
were  against  it,  yet  it  was  successful  from  the  very  start. 

In  his  first  annual  report  Mr.  Cooley  recommended  that 
a  farm  colony  be  established  in  the  country  within  ten  or 
twelve  miles  of  the  city,  where  all  the  city's  charges,  the 
old,  the  sick,  the  young  and  the  delinquent  might  be  cared 
for.  To  quote  his  own  words : 

"  Underneath  this  movement  back  to  the  land  are  simple  funda- 
mental principles.  The  first  is  that  normal  environment  has  a 
strong  tendency  to  restore  men  to  normal  mental  and  physical 
condition.  The  second  is  that  the  land  furnishes  the  largest  op- 
portunities for  the  aged  and  defective  to  use  whatever  power  and 
talents  they  possess.  In  shop  and  factory  the  man  who  cannot 
do  his  full  work  is  crowded  out.  Upon  the  land  the  men  past 
their  prime,  the  crippled,  the  weak  can  always  find  some  useful 
work." 

Before  the  end  of  his  nine  years'  service  Mr.  Cooley's 
hope  was  in  part  at  least  realized.  From  time  to  time  the 
city  purchased  land  upon  his  recommendation  until  twenty- 
five  farms  —  nearly  two  thousand  acres  in  all  —  had  been 
acquired.  The  city  council  voted  to  name  this  great  acre- 
age the  Cooley  Farms,  and  so  it  is  known.  It  is  divided 
into  the  Colony  Farm,  which  has  taken  the  place  of  the 
old  infirmary  or  city  almshouse,  the  Overlook  Farm  for 
tuberculosis  patients,  the  Correction  Farm  for  workhouse 
prisoners,  the  Highland  Park  Farm,  the  municipal  ceme- 
tery. Then  there  is  the  farm  of  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  acres  at  Hudson,  twenty-three  miles  from  the  city, 


i76  MY  STORY 

which  is  the  Boys'  Home.  This  farm  was  the  first  of  the 
city's  purchases  and  the  land  was  bought  at  less  than  forty- 
four  dollars  an  acre.  Here  in  eight  cottages,  each  in 
charge  of  a  master  and  matron,  the  boys  from  the  juvenile 
court  find  a  temporary  home.  There  is  no  discipline 
suggesting  a  reformatory.  There  are  schools  with  some 
manual  training  in  addition  to  the  regular  school  curricu- 
lum, and  the  care  of  the  stock  and  other  farm  work  to 
occupy  the  boys.  The  principle  is  the  same  as  that  of  the 
George  Junior  Republic,  but  adapted  to  municipal  needs. 
The  boys  respond  wonderfully  to  the  normal  environment 
provided  here.  The  juvenile  court,  though  a  state  institu- 
tion, always  had  the  hearty  support  of  the  city  administra- 
tion and  the  court  and  the  Boys'  Home  have  cooperated 
most  successfully. 

The  city's  purchase  of  the  first  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  of  the  Cooley  Farms,  on  which  the  whole  magnificent 
project  hinged,  was  almost  prevented  by  special  privilege. 
Everything  the  administration  attempted  had  come  to  be 
the  object  of  its  attack  and  at  that  time  we  no  longer  had 
a  majority  in  the  council.  One  Monday  afternoon  Mr. 
Cooley  took  one  of  our  friendly  councilmen  out  to  the 
farm  to  show  it  to  him.  As  something  of  the  greatness 
of  the  proposed  work  dawned  upon  the  man  he  grew  en- 
thusiastic and  expressed  himself  most  feelingly  in  favor 
of  it.  That  night  at  the  council  meeting,  when  the  pur- 
chase of  the  land  was  under  consideration,  this  man  got 
up  and  denounced  the  whole  plan  in  a  speech  so  bitterly 
sarcastic  that  it  was  with  extreme  difficulty  that  we  saved 
the  day.  His  speech  all  but  defeated  the  appropriation. 
Mr.  Cooley  was  so  surprised  that  he  could  hardly  credit 
the  evidence  of  his  own  senses.  It  was  perfectly  clear  that 


MAKING  MEN  177 

the  councilman  had  "  been  seen,"  between  the  time  he  had 
visited  the  farm  site  with  Mr.  Cooley  in  the  afternoon 
and  the  hour  of  the  council  meeting  at  night.  Mr.  Cooley 
felt,  as  I  did,  that  the  enemy  might  at  least  have  spared 
this  project.  The  appropriation  was  made,  the  farm  was 
purchased,  but  the  incident  had  sad  consequences. 

The  councilman  —  a  young  fellow  —  had  undoubtedly 
gone  into  his  office  with  the  thought  of  doing  good  work 
and  making  it  a  stepping-stone  to  bigger  and  better  service. 
When  he  talked  with  Mr.  Cooley  in  the  afternoon  it  was 
himself,  the  real  man  in  him,  that  spoke.  He  believed 
in  Mr.  Cooley's  work.  What  happened  between  that 
time  and  the  hour  of  the  council  meeting  we  do  not  know, 
but  that  man  was  never  quite  the  same  afterwards. 
Somehow  he  had  been  undone.  He  has  since  died.  He 
wasn't  bad,  but  Privilege  came  along  and  laid  hands  upon 
him  and  spoiled  his  chance.  Its  path  is  strewn  with  trag- 
edies like  this. 

All  of  the  departments  under  Mr.  Cooley  were  placed 
on  a  new  basis,  each  as  radical  and  as  rational  as  the 
parole  system  or  the  method  of  conducting  the  Boys' 
Home.  Over  the  entrance  to  the  Old  Couples'  Cottage 
is  inscribed,  "  To  lose  money  is  better  than  to  lose  love," 
and  the  old  men  and  women,  instead  of  being  separated 
as  formerly  and  simply  herded  until  death  takes  them 
away,  live  together  now,  and  useful  employment  is  pro- 
vided for  all  who  are  able  to  work,  for  idleness  is  the 
great  destroyer  of  happiness.  Especial  care  has  been 
taken  to  better  the  surroundings  of  the  crippled  and  the 
sick.  The  buildings  on  Colony  Farm  are  of  marble  dust 
plaster  finish  with  red  tile  roofs  and  the  Spanish  mis- 
sion style  of  architecture.  Beautifully  located  on  a  ridge 


i78  MY  STORY 

six  hundred  feet  above  the  city,  they  look  out  onto  Lake 
Erie  ten  miles  away.  A  complete  picture  of  the  buildings, 
even  to  the  olive  trees  which  are  one  day  to  grow  in  the 
court  and  the  fountain  which  is  to  splash  in  the  center,  to 
the  canary  birds  singing  in  gilt  cages  in  the  windows  of 
the  cottages,  to  the  old  ladies  sitting  at  their  spinning 
wheels  in  the  sun  and  to  the  old  men  cobbling  shoes  or 
working  in  wood  in  the  shops,  existed  in  Mr.  Cooley's 
mind  when  the  city  bought  the  first  of  the  land  and  long 
before  a  spadeful  of  earth  had  been  turned  in  excavating. 

The  tuberculosis  sanitarium  is  half  a  mile  from  the 
colony  group,  protected  by  a  forest  of  seventy  acres  on  the 
north  and  northwest  and  looking  out  over  open  country 
on  the  other  sides.  Here  is  waged  an  unequal  contest 
with  a  disease  which  science  can  never  eliminate  until  the 
social  and  industrial  conditions  which  are  responsible  for 
it  are  changed. 

A  mile  and  a  half  from  Colony  Farm  is  the  Correction 
Farm  for  the  workhouse  prisoners.  The  men  come  and 
go  as  they  like  from  their  work  on  the  farm,  at  exca- 
vating for  new  buildings  or  quarrying  stone.  Refractory 
prisoners,  instead  of  being  dealt  with  by  the  old  brutaliz- 
ing methods,  are  bathed  and  given  clean  clothes  and  then 
sent  off  by  themselves  to  reflect  —  not  to  solitary  confine- 
ment in  dark  cells,  but  to  one  of  the  "  sun  dungeons  " 
originated  by  Mr.  Cooley.  These  rooms  —  three  of 
them  —  in  one  of  the  towers  of  the  building  are  painted 
white,  and  flooded  with  light,  sunshine  and  fresh  air.  It 
is  part  of  Mr.  Cooley's  theory  that  men  need  just  such  sur- 
roundings to  put  them  in  a  normal  state  of  mind  when  they 
are  feeling  ill  used  or  ugly. — "  Sending  them  to  the 
Thinking  Tower,"  he  calls  it. —  A  volume  would  be  in- 


MAKING  MEN  179 

adequate  to  give  even  a  partial  conception  of  this  branch 
of  our  administration's  activities. 

All  of  the  land  in  the  city  farms  has  increased  greatly 
in  value  since  it  was  purchased.  Purely  as  a  business  ven- 
ture it  has  been  a  good  investment.  Its  value  as  a  social 
investment  cannot  be  estimated. 

William  J.  Springborn,  who  had  been  so  valuable  a 
member  of  the  city  council,  proved  equal  to  the  duties  of 
his  new  office.  He  had  charge  of  all  the  business  depart- 
ments, the  engineering  contracts,  the  building  of  bridges, 
the  paving  of  streets,  etc.  He  had  had  experience  enough 
in  both  business  and  politics  to  keep  out  corruption  and 
prevent  grafting.  His  biggest  work  was  in  connection 
with  contractors  where  the  highest  degree  of  watchfulness 
and  efficiency  is  required.  The  conduct  of  Mr.  Spring- 
horn's  department  was  always  a  matter  of  pride  with  the 
administration,  and  great  was  the  consternation  of  his 
friends  and  exceeding  great  the  jubilation  of  his  enemies 
when  the  newspapers,  in  sensational  headlines,  told  a  story 
one  morning  of  how  Mr.  Springborn  had  been  buncoed. 
He  had  been  swindled  in  a  most  artistic  manner,  the 
principal  mover  in  the  game  being  a  man  whom  he  had 
known  for  many  years.  A  few  days  before  this  story 
came  out  he  had  told  me  he  was  going  out  of  town  on 
a  business  errand,  and  though  he  explained  very  little 
of  the  contemplated  transaction  to  me  it  aroused  my 
suspicions.  I  begged  him  to  take  a  lawyer  with  him. 
He  refused.  I  then  threatened  to  send  a  detective  to 
watch  him,  but  I  saw  I  was  hurting  his  feelings,  so  I 
gave  it  up.  I  knew  I'd  have  to  abandon  my  plan 
of  helping  him  and  let  him  go  and  buy  his  experience. 
When  he  got  home  from  South  Bend,  Ind.,  where 


i8o  MY  STORY 

the  swindle  was  perpetrated,  I  sent  for  him.  He 
came  to  me  at  once,  explained  everything  fully,  freely, 
and  said  that  he  realized  that  he  was  deeply  disgraced, 
that  he  should  have  to  withdraw  at  once  from  his  church 
in  which  he  had  been  a  worker  for  a  long  time,  and  from 
the  public  service,  so  that  no  odium  might  attach  to  church 
or  city  because  of  his  demoralization.  I  remember  that 
I  asked  him  just  one  question  — "  Will,  did  you  rob  any- 
body?" "No,  I  was  robbed,"  was  his  answer. 
"  Then,"  I  said,  "  I  won't  hear  to  your  resigning  or  in 
any  way  showing  the  white  feather.  It  is  no  crime  to  be 
robbed,  the  crime  is  in  the  robbing.  You'll  stay  and  I'll 
stay  with  you."  His  answer  to  my  own  question  made 
me  understand  all  I  needed  to  know  about  the  case.  His 
church  friends  and  many  of  his  old  admirers  were  less 
lenient,  but  they  later  saw  their  error,  for  Mr.  Springborn 
continued  his  city  work  and  his  efficiency  was  in  no  way  im- 
paired —  if  anything,  he  was  better  equipped  after  the 
unfortunate  occurrence  than  before.  Politicians  —  ene- 
mies —  made  a  great  deal  of  the  matter  and  tried  to  ruin 
his  reputation,  but  without  success.  The  principal  in  the 
bunco  game  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 

Mr.  Leslie  had  charge  of  the  parks  and  the  market 
houses.  He  made  the  children  feel  that  the  parks  really 
belonged  to  them  and  continued  our  policy  of  summer  and 
winter  sports. 

The  waterworks  had  long  since  been  placed  in  charge 
of  Professor  Bemis,  who  kept  politics  out  and  business  in, 
in  the  conduct  of  this  department,  better  than  it  had  ever 
been  done  before.  Formerly  the  waterworks  department 
had  provided  places  for  lots  of  good  party  workers. 
Professor  Bemis  did  away  with  all  that.  He  was  invalu- 


MAKING  MEN  181 

able  also  in  our  State  taxation  fights,  and  our  local  street 
railway  contests,  for  he  was  the  expert  on  valuations  of 
public  service  corporations. 

Peter  Witt  was  elected  city  clerk  in  May,  1903,  and 
held  that  office  as  long  as  I  was  mayor,  though  a  hostile 
council  once  elected  in  his  place  someone  who  never  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  possession  of  the  office,  the  supreme 
court  holding  that  the  other  man  had  not  been  legally 
chosen. 

Not  the  least  notable  of  the  men  associated  with  my 
administration  was  Fred  Kohler,  whom  I  appointed  chief 
of  police  at  the  beginning  of  my  second  term.  Kohler 
had  been  on  the  police  force  since  1889.  He  was  a 
patrolman  at  first,  later  a  sergeant,  then  a  lieutenant,  and 
for  the  first  five  months  of  my  administration  a  captain 
in  charge  of  the  first  police  district  with  headquarters  at 
the  central  station.  Kohler  seems  to  have  shown  unusual 
ability  almost  from  the  beginning  of  his  connection  with 
the  police  department  and  for  that  reason  he  was  more  or 
less  unpopular,  arousing  the  jealousy  of  the  less  efficient. 
Only  strong  men  make  enemies  and  if  Kohler's  strength 
is  to  be  measured  by  the  enemies  he  has  made  he  deserves 
to  rank  with  the  strongest.  Some  of  our  partisan  party 
workers  brought  tales  about  Kohler  to  me.  I  had  no 
reason  to  suspect  these  persons  of  ulterior  motives,  and 
thinking  I  was  acting  in  the  best  interests  of  the  city  I 
caused  him  to  be  removed  from  the  down  town  district 
and  stationed  in  an  outlying  section  of  the  city.  Being 
"  sent  to  the  woods,"  as  this  was  called,  was  very  incon- 
venient for  Kohler  as  it  made  his  headquarters  some  six 
miles  from  his  home.  But  he  went  without  protest  and 
continued  to  do  good  work.  After  a  while  I  began  to  sus- 


1 82  MY  STORY 

pect  that  I  had  been  fooled  about  Kohler  and  one  day  I 
sent  for  him  to  come  to  my  house  to  see  me.  He  came. 
I  liked  his  looks  and  I  liked  his  manner.  He  inspired  me 
with  confidence  at  once.  I  was  sure  now  that  he  had  been 
maligned  and  I  told  him  so. 

"  I  have  done  you  an  injustice,"  I  said,  "  and  I've  just 
found  it  out.  How  would  you  like  to  be  chief?  " 

"  I  haven't  asked  for  it,"  he  answered.  "  I'm  a  Re- 
publican." 

"  I  don't  care  anything  about  your  politics  and  I  know 
you  haven't  asked  for  anything." 

As  soon  as  the  way  was  clear,  then,  that  is,  May  I, 
1903,  Fred  Kohler  was  appointed  chief  of  police  of  the 
city  of  Cleveland  and  he  is  still  serving  in  that  capacity. 
While  I  was  mayor  I  had  more  complaints  on  account  of 
him  than  on  account  of  any  other  city  official,  but  I  found 
that  the  chief  was  almost  invariably  in  the  right. 

I  couldn't  hold  men  responsible  for  their  work  unless 
I  backed  them  in  what  they  did,  and  a  man  I  wasn't  willing 
to  back  I  felt  ought  not  to  hold  the  office.  I  demanded 
and  expected  the  best.  My  fellow-workers  knew  this  and 
it  was  not  often  that  they  failed  to  come  up  to  my  ex- 
pectations. 

Nobody  connected  with  the  administration  originated 
more  improvements  in  his  department  than  Kohler  did. 
I  was  frequently  given  personal  credit  for  innovations 
which  properly  belonged  to  the  chief.  After  we  got  to 
working  together  he  never  worried  me  with  details.  He 
had  that  judgment  so  rare  in  executive  officers  which  made 
him  rely  on  himself.  He  discouraged  indiscriminate  ar- 
rests; he  gave  orders  that  men  merely  drunk  should  be 


5>"  .2 

3  I 

O  c 

O  I 

U  3 


« 
" 


o    O 


MAKING  MEN  183 

taken  home  instead  of  dragged  into  police  court  and  made 
to  suffer  the  humiliation  of  a  fine  and  branded  with  a 
police  court  record.  The  greatest  efficiency  was  no  longer 
measured  by  the  number  of  arrests  an  officer  made. 

Kohler's  practices  coincided  well  with  the  policy  of  our 
charities  and  corrections  department.  But  he  arrived  at 
his  conclusions  from  an  entirely  different  line  of  reasoning 
than  Mr.  Cooley  had  arrived  at  his.  Cooley  was  an  ideal- 
ist, the  gentlest  of  men,  the  son  of  a  minister,  himself  a 
minister  who  believed  in  applied  Christianity.  To  him 
the  teachings  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  were  personal 
commands.  He  never  asked  whether  a  thing  was  expedi- 
ent, but  always  whether  it  was  right.  Now  Kohler  had 
been  brought  up  in  a  different  school.  Police  service  isn't 
especially  calculated  to  develop  the  softer  virtues. 
Kohler  is  German,  with  the  masterful  race  characteristics 
strong  in  him.  He  is  a  martinet  with  his  men, —  his  dis- 
cipline almost  military.  He  arrived  at  his  conclusions 
after  the  most  thorough  tests  of  his  various  methods.  He 
got  results  and  on  these  results  he  built  what  has  come  to 
be  known  as  the  Golden  Rule  policy  —  a  name  Kohler 
never  applied  to  it.  He  called  it  common  sense  and  so  it 
was,  but  then  so  is  the  Golden  Rule  for  that  matter. 

Kohler  always  had  enemies.  Whether  he  kept  the 
same  ones  or  raised  a  new  lot  annually  does  not  matter. 
They  were  always  there.  These  enemies  had  their  best 
chance  after  I  left  the  City  Hall  and  their  terrific  attack 
on  his  personal  character  and  his  official  record  culminated, 
in  the  summer  of  1910,  in  his  suspension  as  chief  and  in 
his  trial  before  what  was  considered  an  inimical  tribunal 
—  the  civil  service  commission  —  with  the  result  that 


1 84  MY  STORY 

though  all  the  years  of  his  record  were  searched  in  the 
hope  of  finding  something  which  would  reflect  unfavorably 
upon  him,  he  was  completely  exonerated  and  immediately 
restored  to  office. 


XVIII 

SUPREME  COURT  BLOCKS  PROGRESS 

THE  new  city  government  went  into  operation  May  4, 
1903.  That  the  administrative  department  was  not  to  be 
impaired  by  the  abolition  of  the  federal  plan  which  had 
placed  the  chief  responsibility  upon  the  mayor  has  been 
shown;  but  what  about  the  legislative  department?  Here 
the  code  contained  provisions  so  ridiculously  absurd  that 
one  would  be  disposed  to  laugh  at  them  if  he  could  forget 
for  a  moment  the  menace  to  democratic  institutions  ex- 
hibited in  this  joint  action  of  Senator  Hanna  and  "  Boss  " 
Cox  in  framing  a  code  expressly  intended  to  strike  at  a 
person  —  in  this  instance  the  person  happening  to  be  my- 
self. 

The  code  was  so  fixed  that  the  mayor  could  not  ap- 
point the  board  of  public  safety  without  the  assent  of 
two-thirds  of  the  council.  In  case  the  mayor  and  the 
council  should  not  agree  the  governor  of  the  State  was 
empowered  to  make  the  appointment.  The  code  abol- 
ished the  excellent  feature  of  the  federal  plan  which  per- 
mitted the  mayor  to  participate  in  all  debates  in  council 
and  department  heads  to  participate  in  debates  relating 
to  their  respective  departments.  There  is  not  a  shadow 
of  doubt  that  the  whole  thing  had  been  carefully  planned 
to  minimize  my  power.  Out  of  a  councilmanic  body 
numbering  thirty-two  we  now  had  twenty-three  members 
who  were  committed  to  our  civic  programme  and  one  of 

185; 


1 86  MY  STORY 

the  first  things  the  majority  did  was  to  restore  the  pre- 
rogative of  the  mayor  and  the  department  heads  to  par- 
ticipate in  discussions  in  the  council.  This  they  were  able 
to  do  for  by  some  curious  oversight  the  code-makers  had 
empowered  council  to  invite  non-members  to  address 
them.  Our  friends  defeated  this  piece  of  petty  politics 
by  making  a  standing  rule  of  council  extending  an  invita- 
tion to  the  mayor  and  to  the  heads  of  the  various  depart- 
ments to  address  the  meetings  of  council  whenever  they 
desired  to  do  so. 

If  the  reflections  I  have  here  indulged  in  on  the  matter 
of  the  arbitrary  rulings  of  the  new  code  seem  bitter  my 
address  to  the  council  on  the  occasion  of  inaugurating  the 
new  city  government  did  not  in  the  slightest  degree  ques- 
tion the  wisdom  or  the  integrity  of  the  legislative  body 
which  had  imposed  this  code  upon  us.  Instead  I  said  it 
was  not  for  us  to  quarrel  with  the  tools  that  had  been 
placed  in  our  hands,  that  what  was  required  of  us  and  what 
we  must  render  was  the  best  workmanship  in  all  respects 
that  the  circumstances  permitted.  I  ventured  the  pre- 
.diction  that  the  officials  of  Cleveland  would  prove  equal 
to  the  delicate  and  difficult  task  before  them.  "  Working 
harmoniously  together,"  I  said,  "  without  regard  to  party, 
with  malice  toward  no  man  and  injustice  to  no  interest, 
but  in  response  to  a  lively  spirit  of  fair  play  to  all, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  I  believe  that  the  members  of  this 
new  city  government  will  overcome  every  obstacle,  those 
that  are  designedly  thrown  in  our  way  as  well  as  those 
that  naturally  arise,  and  so  triumphantly  achieve  the  bene- 
ficent results  they  have  been  elected  to  secure.  .  .  . 
What  greater  honor  could  any  of  us  desire?  What  ob- 
ject could  there  be  more  worthy  of  any  man's  ambition 


SUPREME  COURT  BLOCKS  PROGRESS     187 

than  to  succeed  in  giving  strength  and  tone  and  exalted 
character  to  the  municipality  of  which  he  is  a  citizen? 
to  succeed  in  effectively  cooperating  in  the  work  of  es- 
tablishing in  his  own  city  municipal  self-government  upon 
the  basis  of  equal  justice,  and  thereby  setting  an  example 
of  practical  democracy  to  the  civilized  world?  " 

That  was  what  I  wanted  to  do  for  Cleveland  —  just 
that.  It  seemed  the  natural  thing,  the  right  thing  for 
any  mayor,  for  any  citizen  to  desire  for  his  city.  But  I 
was  accused  of  wanting  to  do  almost  everything  but  the 
one  thing  that  I  did  want  to  do,  and  from  every  motive, 
except  the  one  that  really  prompted  me. 

Of  course  all  this  outside  interference,  this  "  guardian 
angel  business,"  as  one  of  the  newspapers  styled  it, 
strengthened  us  in  our  fight  for  home  rule.  If  a  move- 
ment is  really  based  upon  a  principle  of  right,  upon  a 
fundamental  truth,  nothing  injures  it.  Its  progress  may 
be  checked  but  it  cannot  be  permanently  stayed.  Its  ene- 
mies aid  it  in  the  long  run. 

As  soon  as  our  new  form  of  government  was  in  opera- 
tion and  the  supreme  court  injunction  against  us  raised 
we  went  ahead  with  our  street  railroad  plans.  The  sec- 
ond step  towards  low  fare  was  taken  May  4,  1903,  the 
day  on  which  the  new  municipal  form  of  government 
went  into  effect,  when  eleven  low  fare  ordinances  were 
introduced  in  council.  On  July  18  bids  were  opened,  only 
two  being  received,  one  for  a  cross-town  line  on  Denison 
avenue,  an  isolated  route  on  the  west  side  and  having 
no  connection  with  the  down  town  district,  from  Albert 
Green,  representing  J.  B.  Hoefgen's  successors;  the  other 
for  a  line  on  Seneca  street  from  J.  B.  Zmunt.  On  Sep- 
tember 9  the  grant  for  the  Denison  avenue  line  was  made 


1 88  MY  STORY 

to  Green.  It  will  be  remembered  that  a  cash  de- 
posit of  ten  thousand  dollars  was  now  required  with  each 
bid.  A  few  minutes  after  council  had  made  the  grant 
to  Green  a  councilman  rushed  in  with  an  armful  of  revo- 
cations, but  it  was  too  late.  The  ordinance  had  been 
passed.  The  Cleveland  Electric  Railway  Company 
claimed  a  majority  of  consents  and  was  asking  for  an 
extension  to  their  lines  through  Denison  avenue.  They 
said  they  had  the  consents,  but  weren't  ready  to  file  them. 
They  never  did  file  them  and  on  September  4  the  board  of 
public  service  denied  their  application  and  granted  that 
of  the  three-cent-fare  bidder.  Council  confirmed  this 
unanimously  and  on  September  9,  the  requisite  number 
of  consents  having  been  filed,  made  the  grant  to  Green  as 
already  stated.  Commenting  on  this  the  Cleveland  Plain 
Dealer  said,  "  Unless  blocked  by  the  courts  there  can 
now  be  no  obstacle  to  the  immediate  fulfillment  of  at  least 
a  part  of  the  original  issue  with  which  Mr.  Johnson  went 
before  the  people  in  his  campaign."  I  was  not  quite 
so  sanguine  and  when  interviewed  merely  said  that  the 
three-cent  line  would  be  in  operation  long  before  those 
who  were  opposed  to  it  were  ready  for  it.  I  knew  we 
needn't  expect  Privilege  to  lie  down  until  it  was  whipped 
to  a  finish  and  that  hadn't  been  accomplished  yet,  by  a 
good  deal. 

Ground  was  broken  for  the  Denison  avenue  line  Sep- 
tember 23  and  then  the  enemy  got  busier  than  ever. 
Every  one  of  the  property  owners'  signatures  on  the  con- 
sents was  scrutinized  by  the  courts  and  fought  over  like 
the  signature  to  a  contested  will.  Every  fly  speck  that 
might  possibly  offer  an  excuse  for  a  law  suit  was  ex- 
amined. A  mile  of  the  road  was  completed  and  the  work 


SUPREME  COURT  BLOCKS  PROGRESS     189 

was  going  on  when  it  was  stopped  by  an  injunction,  a 
few  days  after  the  fall  election,  that  is  on  November  12. 
The  hearing  on  the  injunction  was  first  set  for  November 
1 6,  then  postponed  to  the  3Oth  and  so  it  dragged  along. 
The  company  had  expended  thirty  thousand  dollars  on 
the  construction  of  the  line  and  was  under  bond  for 
twenty-five  thousand  to  complete  the  work.  Injunctions 
multiplied  so  rapidly  and  checked  the  progress  of  con- 
struction so  effectually  that  the  enterprise  was  often  re- 
ferred to  as  the  three-cent-fare  railroad  buried  in  the  mud. 
It  took  time  and  more  patience  than  in  my  earlier  life  I 
would  have  supposed  existed  in  the  whole  world  to  put  that 
venture  through. 

At  last  the  supreme  court  decided  the  case  in  favor  of 
Green  on  the  ground  that  the  plaintiffs  had  permitted 
him  to  spend  so  much  money  before  having  him  enjoined. 
This  fact  created  an  estoppel.  But  for  Senator  Hanna's 
political  activity,  he  being  a  candidate  to  succeed  himself 
in  the  fall  of  1903  when  this  was  going  on,  and  the  un- 
questioned fact  that  an  injunction  would  hurt  him  he  cer- 
tainly would  have  moved  before  election  day  and  pre- 
vented an  estoppel.  The  city's  real  success  at  last  in  crea- 
ting a  line  from  which  extensions  could  be  made  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  Senator  Hanna  sacrificed  his  street 
railroad  interests  to  political  necessity.  He  had  been 
quoted  as  saying,  "  When  I  can't  combine  business  and 
politics,  I  will  give  up  politics,"  but  public  sentiment  in 
Cleveland  was  making  it  increasingly  hard  to  combine 
business  and  politics  and  even  Senator  Hanna  had  to  defer 
to  public  opinion. 

When  at  last  those  three  miles  of  track  on  Denison 
avenue  were  completed  they  furnished  the  long  desired 


190  MY  STORY 

base  line  from  which  other  lines  could  be  extended.  It 
was  the  only  bit  of  railroad  in  the  city  not  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Concon,  for  by  this  time  the  merger  of  the 
Big  Con  and  the  Little  Con  had  been  effected.  This 
merger  was  commonly  attributed  to  my  activity  in  the 
city's  interests.  On  July  6,  1903,  the  Concon  commenced 
to  sell  six  tickets  for  a  quarter  and  to  give  universal  trans- 
fers —  clearly  a  measure  of  self-defense. 

From  this  little  line  on  Denison  evenue  extensions  could 
be  made  and  one  after  another  was  made.  Property 
owners'  consent  wars  were  raging  on  the  streets  all  this 
time  and  the  council  chamber  and  the  courts  were  the 
scenes  of  constant  battles.  The  city  was  powerful  in  the 
council,  the  Concon  powerful  in  the  courts.  First  one 
side  would  move,  then  the  other.  As  the  franchises  of 
the  old  company  expired  renewals  instead  of  being  granted 
to  them  were  granted  as  extensions  to  the  three-cent  line 
and  so  inch  by  inch  the  three-cent  line  grew  longer  and 
became  more  and  more  threatening  daily.  The  admin- 
istration policy  already  referred  to  of  changing  the  names 
of  streets  was  often  necessary.  This  was  the  most  intense 
period  of  the  street  railroad  struggle  so  far,  and  for  this 
reason  detailed  information  as  to  dates  and  specific  activi- 
ties has  been  given.  It  was  the  fear  that  all  grants  as 
they  expired  would  go  to  the  three-cent-fare  company 
which  finally  gave  the  city  its  most  striking  victory  in 
the  year  1907.  That  year  the  valuation  of  the  street  rail- 
roads of  the  city  was  made  by  F.  H.  Goff  and  myself  after 
four  months  of  public  hearings,  at  the  end  of  which  time 
the  property  was  leased  to  a  holding  company  to  be 
operated  for  the  public  good.  I  shall  tell  more  of  this 
later. 


SUPREME  COURT  BLOCKS  PROGRESS     191 

Simultaneously  with  the  street  railway  war  other  mat- 
ters of  moment  claimed  my  attention  as  mayor.  I  had 
become  convinced  that  a  combination  existed  among  local 
contractors  for  running  up  the  price  of  paving.  It  had 
been  the  custom  to  call  for  a  few  bids  at  one  time.  I 
decided  to  break  up  the  combine  by  calling  for  bids  on 
the  entire  paving  for  the  year  1903.  I  called  before  me 
a  representative  of  the  Barber  Asphalt  Company  and 
told  him  that  his  company  could  never  hope  to  do  any 
asphalt  paving  for  our  administration  since  we  did  not 
believe  in  that  kind  of  paving  but  that  they  might  secure 
the  brick  paving  for  the  city  if  he  could  assure  me  that 
they  would  do  it  at  a  great  saving  to  the  municipality. 
When  the  bidding  took  place  this  company  underbid  the 
local  contractors  by  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  defeated  contractors  immediately  got  a  re- 
straining order  from  the  supreme  court  enjoining  us  from 
entering  into  a  contract  on  account  of  the  illegal  char- 
acter of  the  charter  under  which  the  city  was  operating. 
Upon  final  hearing  the  injunction  was  dissolved.  Luck 
was  on  our  side  in  this  case.  Senator  Hanna  was  not  in- 
terested in  street  paving  and  he  had  no  objection  to  su- 
preme court  decisions  which  did  not  affect  him. 

The  editorial  comment  of  one  of  the  local  newspapers 
was  significant:  "The  municipal  administration  was 
treated  to  a  genuine  surprise  in  the  action  of  the  supreme 
court  dissolving  the  injunction  in  the  paving  contract. 
So  accustomed  has  the  administration  become  to  supreme 
court  injunctions  every  time  it  attempts  to  do  anything 
that  the  action  .  .  .  was  quite  unexpected." 

Believing  in  the  municipal  ownership  of  all  public  serv- 
ice utilities,  I  was  eager  to  take  advantage  of  everything 


1 92  MY  STORY 

the  laws  made  possible  in  this  direction.  For  many  years 
Cleveland  had  owned  its  waterworks,  and  though  the 
municipal  ownership  of  street  railways  was  not  nor  is 
yet  permitted,  there  was  no  legal  obstacle  to  a  municipal 
lighting  plant  and  our  administration  took  steps  to  estab- 
lish one.  On  the  night  of  May  4,  1903,  when  the  new 
city  government  went  into  effect,  an  ordinance  was  in- 
troduced into  council  providing  for  a  bond  issue  of  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  passed  by  unanimous 
vote  May  n.  When  the  ordinance  was  published  it  was 
discovered  that  it  was  so  worded  as  to  provide  for  an 
"  electric  light  and  power  plant."  It  developed  that 
there  was  nothing  in  the  statutes  to  cover  a  power  plant. 
In  order  that  prospective  buyers  of  bonds  might  raise  no 
question  on  this  point  it  was  thought  best  to  pass  the  or- 
dinance again  with  the  words  "  and  power  "  eliminated. 
At  once  the  Cleveland  Electric  Illuminating  Company  got 
very  busy.  It  didn't  want  to  be  obliged  to  compete  in  the 
lighting  business  with  its  own  best  customer  —  the  city. 
It  went  to  council.  That  body  was  composed  of  nine 
Republicans  and  twenty-three  Democrats:  twenty-two 
votes  were  required  for  the  necessary  majority  of  two- 
thirds  on  all  legislation  of  this  character.  The  Illumi- 
nating Company  succeeded  in  winning  over  three  Demo- 
cratic members.  These  men  voting  with  the  nine  Repub- 
licans defeated  the  ordinance  when  it  was  again  intro- 
duced. Another  instance  of  what  outside  influence  does 
to  councils! 

We  decided  then  to  call  a  special  election  on  the  bond 
issue  and  named  September  8  as  the  date.  On  Septem- 
ber i  Attorney-General  Sheets,  at  the  instance  of  Thomas 
Hogsett,  acting  in  the  interests  of  the  Cleveland  Electric 


SUPREME  COURT  BLOCKS  PROGRESS     193 

Illuminating  Company,  brought  suit  to  prevent  the  special 
election,  and  a  restraining  order  was  granted  on  the  ground 
that  the  Cleveland  board  of  elections  was  an  unconstitu- 
tional body  and  that  the  Longworth  act  providing  for 
special  bond  issue  elections  was  likewise  unconstitutional. 
The  hearing  was  set  for  September  22,  nearly  two  weeks 
after  the  date  fixed  for  the  election.  It  happened  that 
on  that  very  same  day  the  city  was  also  enjoined  from 
entering  into  a  contract  with  the  Municipal  Signal  Com- 
pany of  Chicago  for  the  installation  of  a  police  signal  sys- 
tem. 

Our  campaign  for  the  bond  issue  election  had  been 
planned  and  the  first  meeting  was  scheduled  for  that  night, 
September  I,  so  a  few  hours  after  the  restraining  order 
had  been  served,  Mr.  Baker,  Mr.  Cooley,  Mr.  Spring- 
born  and  I  presented  ourselves  at  the  tent  and  found  our 
audience  waiting  for  us.  In  its  news  report  of  that  meet- 
ing the  Plain  Dealer  said,  "  The  old  siren  song  of  the 
injunction  has  not  lost  its  charm.  It  was  the  injunction 
that  neighbor  talked  of  to  neighbor,  it  was  the  injunction 
they  came  to  hear  discussed,  it  was  the  injunction  that 
caused  men  to  wonder  that  Mayor  Johnson  had  the 
temerity  to  open  the  campaign  at  all."  Naming  the  speak- 
ers the  report  continued,  "  All  explained  the  municipal 
lighting  plant  proposition  with  as  great  seriousness  as  if 
the  matter  were  really  to  be  disposed  of  next  week." 

We  had  another  meeting  the  next  night  and  another 
the  next,  and  the  board  of  elections  was  providing  for 
registrations  to  be  on  the  safe  side.  In  the  meantime 
City  Solicitor  Baker  hastened  to  Columbus  and  managed 
to  have  the  hearing  set  for  Saturday,  September  5,  three 
days  before  the  proposed  election.  The  hearing  was  held, 


i94  MY  STORY 

Mr.  Baker  arguing  for  the  dissolving  of  the  injunction, 
Mr.  Hogsett  who  by  the  way  had  been  director  of  law 
under  the  administration  preceding  mine,  and  Senator 
Hanna's  ever  faithful  Sheets,  presenting  the  arguments 
against  it.  The  supreme  court  refused  to  dissolve  the 
injunction,  our  special  election  couldn't  be  held  and  our 
municipal  lighting  proposition  was  retired  to  temporary 
oblivion. 

How  many  times  in  our  tent  meetings,  both  in  Cleve- 
land and  out  in  the  State,  when  I  was  asked,  "  Why  do  you 
believe  in  municipal  ownership  ?  "  such  instances  as  this 
one  came  to  mind  when  I  answered: 

"  I  believe  in  municipal  ownership  of  all  public  service 
monopolies  for  the  same  reason  that  I  believe  in  the 
municipal  ownership  of  waterworks,  of  parks,  of  schools. 
I  believe  in  the  municipal  ownership  of  these  monopolies 
because  if  you  do  not  own  them  they  will  in  time  own  you. 
They  will  rule  your  politics,  corrupt  your  institutions  and 
finally  destroy  your  liberties." 


'My  enemies  called  my  tent  a  circus  menagerie. 


Photos  by  I..  Van  Oe\en 


A  poster  in  the  campaign  of  1902 


XIX 

STATE    CAMPAIGNS 

SIMULTANEOUSLY  with  these  activities  in  Cleveland  I 
was  conducting  a  State  wide  campaign  —  the  inevitable 
and  logical  result  of  earlier  canvasses  in  behalf  of  the  cen- 
tral principle  round  which  all  our  agitation  revolved,  viz., 
just  taxation.  The  greatest  privilege  monopolists  own 
is  the  privilege  of  making  other  people  pay  their  taxes 
for  them.  It  is  no  small  job  to  hammer  that  truth  into 
the  consciousness  of  a  people  whose  favorite  maxim  seems 
to  be,  "  Let  well  enough  alone,"  and  who  apparently  re- 
gard whatever  is,  as  "  well  enough." 

Our  attempt  to  make  some  impression  on  the  county 
auditors'  tax  boards,  after  showing  up  the  low  assessment 
of  railroad  property,  has  already  been  described.  Occa- 
sionally we  got  an  auditor  to  vote  with  us  but  we  really 
made  no  headway.  Then  I  started  over  the  State,  attack- 
ing county  auditors  and  showing  up  their  methods,  and 
those  of  the  railroads. 

Of  course,  this  kind  of  campaigning  was  making  me  as 
obnoxious  to  the  machine  Democrats  of  the  State  as  I 
was  to  the  public  service  corporations  in  Cleveland.  In 
1901  there  was  little  difference  between  the  methods  or 
the  aims  of  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties  in 
Ohio.  Friends  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  contributed 
to  the  campaign  funds  of  both.  In  Cincinnati,  Columbus 
and  Toledo,  Privilege  depended  upon  the  local  bosses 

195 


196  MY  STORY 

of  the  two  leading  political  parties  to  join  forces  when- 
ever such  alliance  was  necessary  to  its  service.  In  lesser 
degree  this  coalition  of  Democrats  with  Republicans  for 
the  benefit  of  Big  Business  existed  in  smaller  places  too, 
but  in  these  larger  cities  it  was  quite  open  and  shameless. 
It  was  very  plain  to  me  that  the  first  thing  we  had  to  do 
was  to  clean  house.  There  was  no  hope  in  the  Democratic 
party  so  long  as  it  could  be  manipulated  by  political  crooks. 
In  1902  we  were  able  to  write  the  State  platform  and 
it  contained  demands  for  home  rule,  just  taxation  and 
a  two-cent-a-mile  steam  railroad  fare.  Herbert  S.  Bige- 
low  of  Cincinnati,  a  student  of  sociological  problems  and 
an  able  advocate  of  the  single  tax  was  nominated  for  Sec- 
retary of  State.  This  was  before  the  introduction  of  bien- 
nial elections  and  before  all  the  state  officers  were  elected 
at  one  time.  It  was  not  a  gubernatorial  year.  I  traveled 
over  the  State  in  an  automobile  speaking  from  it,  in  halls 
or  from  the  steps  of  public  buildings  in  the  day  time  and 
usually  in  a  tent  at  night,  having  the  tents  sent  from  place 
to  place  by  wagon  train.  Mr.  Bigelow  accompanied  me 
and  proved  to  be  a  good  campaigner.  Home  rule  and 
the  railroad  questions  were  our  principal  issues. 

At  a  tent  meeting,  in  Crawford  county  I  think  it  was, 
word  came  to  me  that  eight  Democrats  in  the  State  legis- 
lature (then  sitting  in  Senator  Hanna's  extra  session,  the 
one  which  enacted  the  municipal  code),  notwithstanding 
their  platform  pledges  had  voted  for  a  curative  law 
which  had  for  its  object  the  saving  of  a  franchise  granted 
to  a  street  railroad  in  Cincinnati  operated  by  the  Wide- 
ner-Elkins  Syndicate  under  the  Rogers  law  of  1896. 
Grants  made  under  this  fifty-year  law  were  beginning  to 
be  questioned  in  the  courts,  so  the  legislature  in  an  at- 


STATE  CAMPAIGNS  197 

tempt  to  save  the  public  service  corporations  passed  this 
curative  act.  I  at  once  announced  that  I  should  go  into 
the  counties  of  the  eight  Democratic  legislators  who  had 
voted  for  this  measure  (I  was  speaking  in  the  home  county 
of  one  of  them  that  night),  and  denounce  them  to  their 
constituents  as  unworthy  of  trust,  and  that  if  any  of  them 
ever  dared  to  run  for  office  again  I  should  defeat  them 
if  it  was  in  my  power  to  do  so. 

This  pledge  I  made  good.  My  bitterest  fight  was 
against  W.  H.  Earhart  of  Richland  county.  When  he 
became  a  candidate  for  renomination  in  the  spring  of 
1903  I  made  a  quick  automobile  tour  of  his  county  speak- 
ing in  every  town,  village  and  hamlet  and  scattering  liter- 
ature broadcast.  I  was  charged  with  violating  my  own 
principle  of  home  rule.  I  answered,  "  I  stand  for  home 
rule.  If  I  advocated  the  election  of  a  county  official 
whose  jurisdiction  was  confined  to  party  lines  I  might  be 
open  to  criticism,  but  I  am  here  to  give  reasons  why  a 
legislative  candidate  should  not  be  elected.  The  legisla- 
ture is  a  State  office  in  which  the  legislators  pass  laws  for 
Cuyahoga  county  as  well  as  for  Richland.  The  situation 
is  not  so  secret  or  so  sacred  that  it  should  not  be  open 
to  the  public  to  hear  about  it." 

My  opening  meeting  was  at  Mansfield,  the  county  seat, 
where  I  had  been  warned  that  I  would  be  egged  when  I 
appeared  on  the  Opera  House  stage.  Though  I  inquired 
for  the  eggs  as  soon  as  I  got  up  to  speak  none  came  at 
that  meeting  or  any  other.  Earhart  was  beaten  at  the 
primaries. 

In  one  of  the  other  counties,  the  home  of  Representa- 
tive Wells,  another  of  the  faithless  eight,  I  was  approached 
by  the  local  managers  in  the  fall  campaign  of  1903  and 


198  MY  STORY 

importuned  not  to  mention  Wells's  name  on  the  plea 
that  he  was  for  the  State  ticket  and  nothing  was  to  be 
gained  by  raking  up  old  scores.  As  I  was  the  candidate 
for  governor,  they  no  doubt  felt  sure  their  persuasions 
would  prevail.  But  I  kept  my  word  and  devoted  part  of 
my  speech  to  Wells's  record. 

So  far  as  I  know  not  one  of  these  eight  men,  "  black 
sheep  "  we  called  them,  has  ever  dared  to  show  his  head 
in  politics  since  and  Wells  alone  of  the  whole  number  came 
to  one  of  my  meetings  though  I  visited  the  home  counties 
of  all  of  them  and  invited  them  to  come. 

We  didn't  elect  our  State  ticket  in  1902,  but  we  made 
big  gains  in  the  counties  where  our  campaign  was  waged 
hardest  and  we  carried  Cuyahoga  county. 

Our  fight  to  elect  honest  and  intelligent  members  of 
the  State  legislature  may  be  said  to  have  been  continuous. 
In  the  summer  of  1903,  and  before  the  State  convention, 
I  participated  in  the  legislative  campaigns  of  a  number 
of  counties.  The  election  of  a  United  States  Senator 
was  the  important  question  to  come  before  the  next  legis- 
lature and  Mr.  Hanna  was  a  candidate  for  reelection. 

The  Democratic  State  Convention  met  at  Columbus 
August  25  and  26.  I  was  a  candidate  for  the  guberna- 
torial nomination,  not  because  I  thought  it  likely  that  the 
Democrats  could  elect  a  governor  but  because  I  believed 
I  could  make  a  more  effective  campaign  as  a  candidate 
than  as  a  free  lance,  and  because  I  had  been  persuaded 
that  my  name  might  lend  some  strength  to  the  legislative 
ticket.  The  boss-ridden  element  from  Cincinnati  didn't 
want  me  and  sent  a  contesting  delegation;  so  too  a  group 
in  Cleveland  —  discharged  city  employes  for  the  most 
part  —  were  gathered  into  an  eleventh  hour  rump  conven- 


STATE  CAMPAIGNS  199 

tion  managed  by  an  attorney  for  the  gas  company,  and 
elected  delegates  to  Columbus.  By  noon  of  the  second 
day,  however,  all  open  opposition  had  disappeared  and 
I  was  nominated  by  acclamation,  August  26. 

Our  platform  declared  for  Home  Rule  and  Just  Taxa- 
tion, the  Initiative  and  Referendum,  the  City's  Right  to 
Own  and  Operate  Public  Utilities  if  the  people  desired, 
Franchises  to  be  submitted  to  Vote,  Two-Cent-a-Mile 
Steam  Railroad  Fare,  and  against  Government  by  Injunc- 
tion, Waiver  of  Injury  Claims  by  Employes,  Acceptance 
of  Passes  by  Public  Officials,  Fee  System  in  County  Of- 
fices. The  platform  was  denounced  as  "  communistic  " 
by  members  of  our  own  convention  in  a  minority  report. 

Immediately  following  my  nomination  I  called  upon  all 
who  did  not  believe  in  the  principles  we  were  advocating 
not  to  vote  for  me.  I  invited  all  the  crooks  and  thieves 
within  the  party  to  get  out  of  it.  If  ever  a  campaign 
was  fought  on  platform  issues  and  not  on  the  personality 
of  any  of  the  candidates  that  campaign  was  so  far  as  our 
side  was  concerned.  We  carried  our  educational  propa- 
ganda into  nearly  every  county  of  the  State,  follow- 
ing the  same  line  of  campaigning  that  I  had  instituted 
the  year  before  traveling  by  automobile  and  shipping  the 
tents  from  town  to  town  by  rail.  The  great  questions 
were,  home  rule,  equitable  taxation  and  the  unholy  alliance 
between  the  Republican  party  and  the  owners  of  Privilege 
in  the  State  of  Ohio. 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  state  that  the  public  service 
corporations  contributed  nothing  to  the  Democratic  cam- 
paign fund  that  year.  From  the  Columbus  conven- 
tion I  went  to  Noble  county,  the  home  of  State  Audi- 
tor Guilbert  who  had  ordered  our  Cuyahoga  county 


200  MY  STORY 

auditor,  Mr.  Wright,  to  cease  probing  the  tax  rec- 
ords of  five  public  service  corporations  in  Cleveland, 
and  spoke  August  27  to  several  thousand  people  at 
the  county  fair.  I  got  home  August  28  —  that  was 
the  day  we  announced  the  election  on  the  bond  issue  for 
the  municipal  lighting  plant  which  we  expected  to  hold 
September  8,  and  I  announced  also  that  the  State  Demo- 
cratic campaign  would  be  opened  the  day  after  our  special 
election. 

On  August  29  I  addressed  a  very  large  crowd  at  Silver 
Lake  —  a  picnic  resort  a  few  miles  from  Akron, —  the 
home  of  the  manager  of  the  State  Republican  campaign, 
Senator  Charles  S.  Dick.  Colonel  Myron  T.  Herrick, 
the  Republican  nominee  for  governor,  a  Cleveland  banker, 
mentioned  in  the  early  chapters  of  my  story,  had  been  in- 
vited to  attend  the  meeting  also  but  did  not  put  in  an 
appearance.  The  next  day  I  filled  two  dates  for  Mr. 
Bryan  at  Oak  Harbor  and  Toledo,  respectively,  he  being 
unable  to  make  these  places. 

September  i,  2  and  3,  we  held  meetings  in  Cleveland 
in  the  interests  of  the  municipal  lighting  project,  as  has 
already  been  stated.  On  September  6  I  served  for  the 
second  time  in  my  life  as  a  police  court  judge,  being  called 
upon  because  practically  all  the  qualified  officers  were 
away  on  their  vacations.  I  tried  forty-seven  individual 
cases.  The  next  day  was  Labor  Day,  and  after  review- 
ing the  industrial  parade  with  twenty-two  thousand  march- 
ers in  line,  I  left  by  automobile  for  Sandusky  where  I  had 
an  engagement  for  the  next  day.  On  the  next,  Septem- 
ber 9,  we  opened  the  State  campaign  at  Akron  where 
Honorable  John  H.  Clarke,  the  Democratic  candidate  for 
the  United  States  Senate  and  I  spoke  to  a  crowd  estimated 


STATE  CAMPAIGNS  201 

by  the  newspapers  at  seven  thousand.  From  that  time 
until  the  night  before  election  I  spoke  every  day  with  the 
exception  of  Mondays  (Monday  being  my  day  off  so  that 
I  might  always  be  in  Cleveland  for  the  meetings  of  the 
city  council),  and  about  four  days  in  mid-October  when 
my  voice  gave  out  and  I  was  obliged  to  cut  a  few  meet- 
ings. The  campaign  was  a  most  aggressive  one.  It 
opened  in  the  hottest  of  summer  weather.  Before  it  closed 
there  were  cold  rains  and  a  blizzard  or  two.  We  trav- 
eled through  mud  and  wet,  sometimes  speaking  while 
drenched  to  the  skin.  I  spoke  from  four  to  seven  times 
daily,  and  once  seventeen  times  in  one  day,  always  wind- 
ing up  with  a  tent  meeting  at  night  and  traveling  by  auto- 
mobile except  when  the  roads  were  so  bad  that  we  had  to 
resort  to  horses  and  a  surrey  for  short  trips. 

I  addressed  all  kinds  of  meetings  —  family  reunions, 
farmers'  picnics,  small  groups  of  people  hastily  gathered 
together  at  country  cross  roads  and  to  thousands  and  thou- 
sands in  the  tents, —  the  number  at  one  meeting  alone 
reaching  eighteen  thousand,  and  crowds  of  one  thousand 
to  five  thousand  being  not  uncommon. 

I  made  that  whole  campaign  without  once  mentioning  in 
my  speeches  the  name  of  my  opponent,  Colonel  Herrick. 
Our  fight  was  not  against  Herrick  but  against  Mark 
Hanna.  When  the  Republicans  opened  their  campaign 
a  little  while  after  we  had  been  going  the  interest  grew 
more  intense.  At  that  meeting  Senator  Hanna  pictur- 
esquely denounced  me  as  a  "  carpetbagger  followed  by  a 
train  of  all  the  howling  vagrants  of  Ohio  with  a  crazy 
quilt  ticket  and  pretending  to  stand  upon  a  Populistic, 
Socialistic  and  Anarchistic  platform."  The  campaign 
slogan  of  "  Stand  pat  "  was  worked  into  many  doggerel 


202  MY  STORY 

rhymes  set  to  popular  airs  and  at  first  no  effort  was 
made  to  meet  the  real  issues.  Personalities,  campaign, 
songs,  red  fire  and  brass  bands  were  the  weapons  of  the 
enemy. 

Both  in  city  and  State  campaigns  I  always  discouraged 
brass  bands,  red  fire  and  the  usual  artificial  paraphernalia 
of  political  contests.  We  relied  entirely  on  the  merits 
of  the  questions  we  were  presenting.  The  cost  of  tent 
and  other  meetings  and  of  literature  represented  our  out- 
lay. The  absence  of  funds  for  other  expenditures  offended 
the  old-fashioned  Democratic  politicians.  They  believed 
campaigns  couldn't  be  won  without  money,  and  the  other 
side  certainly  demonstrated  that  they  could  be  won  with 
money.  But  we  were  not  fighting  for  the  day,  nor  for 
that  year  only.  We  were  really  breaking  ground  for 
the  clean  campaigns  of  the  future. 

Mr.  Clarke  and  I  were  eager  to  debate  with  Senator 
Hanna  but  neither  he  nor  any  of  his  associates  would  ac- 
cept our  challenges.  As  the  campaign  progressed  the 
Republican  speakers  were  compelled  to  discuss  the  issues 
to  some  extent  and  then  it  was  that  Senator  Hanna  set 
up  the  time-honored  scarecrow  of  "  Socialism."  Said  he, 
"  The  moral  features  of  this  campaign  are  paramount. 
This  is  because  the  Socialist  party  strikes  at  the  home. 
And  here  I  want  to  cry  out  the  warning  that  the  Socialist 
party  of  the  United  States  has  for  the  first  time  a  na- 
tional leader.  Yes,  I  charge  that  Tom  L.  Johnson  is  the 
national  leader  of  the  Socialist  party.  I  beg  of  you  to 
rise  and  kill  the  attempt  to  float  the  flag  of  Socialism 
over  Ohio.  We  invite  to  this  country  people  from  for- 
eign shores  who  are  ambitious  and  industrious,  but  we 


STATE  CAMPAIGNS  203 

do  not  invite  from  foreign  shores  men  imbued  with  the 
desire  to  get  something  for  nothing.  Socialism  is  only 
a  short  step  from  anarchy  and  you  should  rise  up  and  sup- 
press it  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  our  late  lamented 
president,  the  honored  McKinley,  was  a  victim  of  that 
damnable  heresy.  ...  A  vote  for  Johnson  is  a  vote 
for  chaos  in  this  country.  .  .  .  Socialists  like  thieves 
steal  up  behind  to  stab." 

These  sentiments  no  doubt  had  their  influence  in  the 
campaign,  but  I  think  they  did  not  scare  the  common 
people  as  much  as  Peter  Witt's  "  picture  talk,"  scared  the 
privileged  crowd.  They  had  the  newspapers  of  the  state 
with  them  and  made  the  most  of  this  advantage.  We 
had  just  three  newspapers  of  any  consequence  on  our  side. 
We  had  no  money,  we  had  alienated  a  lot  of  professed 
Democrats,  we  were  fighting  the  most  successful  organizer 
and  the  biggest  money-getter  for  political  purposes  then 
in  public  life  in  America.  And  yet  it  was  not  Hanna, 
the  man,  that  we  were  fighting,  but  Hanna  the  represen- 
tative and  defender  of  Privilege.  In  those  days  there 
could  be  but  one  result  in  such  a  contest.  When  the  elec- 
tion returns  came  in  we  were  beaten,  if  one  counts  defeats 
by  votes  which  I  didn't,  for  when  I  was  asked  on  election 
night  when  the  next  campaign  would  begin,  I  answered, 
"  to-morrow." 

In  large  headlines  the  newspapers  proclaimed  the  death 
of  Democracy  in  Ohio  and  of  the  non-partisan  move- 
ment in  Toledo,  Mayor  Jones  having  supported  us  and  his 
forces  having  suffered  serious  rout.  But  the  non-par- 
tisan movement  wasn't  killed,  nor  was  the  Democratic 
party,  as  future  history  was  speedily  to  prove.  The  prin- 


204  MY  STORY 

ciples  we  advocated  in  that  campaign  were  just  as  true  at 
its  close  as  they  had  been  at  the  start,  and  some  of  them 
have  since  been  splendidly  vindicated.  In  spite  of  the 
big  Republican  majority  we  made  gains  in  many  Repub- 
lican counties  and  later  events  prove  that  these  gains  had 
a  very  wholesome  significance. 

Looking  back  on  that  campaign  now  we  can  almost  say 
that  we  weren't  beaten  for  since  then  Ohio  has  enacted  into 
law  many  of  the  things  we  fought  for. 

The  changes  in  the  tax  laws  as  they  affect  steam  rail- 
roads, the  abolition  of  the  pass,  the  two-cent-a-mile  steam 
railroad  fare,  as  also  the  substitution  of  a  local  quadren- 
nial board  of  appraisement  for  the  old  decennial  apprais- 
ers have  already  been  mentioned.  In  addition  to  these, 
municipalities  now  have  the  referendum  on  street  railway- 
franchises  so  a  corrupt  city  council  can  no  longer  make  a 
street  railway  grant  worth  the  paper  on  which  it  is  written 
for  the  voters  have  the  power  to  veto  it ;  some  of  the  pow- 
ers of  mayors  taken  away  by  the  Cincinnati  code  have 
been  restored;  the  fee  system  in  county  offices  has  been 
abolished. 

It  is  true  that  most  of  these  measures  have  been  en- 
acted into  law  by  Republican  legislatures,  but  they  have 
come  largely  as  a  result  of  our  agitation.  Some  of  the 
most  important  were  introduced  by  Democrats  from  Cuya- 
hoga  county  and  lost,  only  to  be  introduced  and  carried 
later  by  Republicans;  as  for  instance  the  measure  for  the 
taxation  of  public  service  corporations  which  Frederic  C. 
Howe  worked  so  hard  to  carry  while  he  was  a  member  of 
the  senate. 

The  success  of  these  activities  is  not  here  put  forward 
as  a  boast  of  personal  achievements  in  any  sense.  It  is 


r 


Pitching  the  tent  in  a  cornfield 


Photos  by  L.  I  'an  Oeyen 

"The  tents  were  sent  from  town  to  town  by  wagon  train 


STATE  CAMPAIGNS  205 

used  simply  as  a  practical  illustration  of  the  claim  made 
in  the  opening  paragraphs  of  this  story  that  Truth  once 
set  in  motion  along  any  line  is  foredoomed  to  victory. 
This  cannot  be  reiterated  too  often.* 

*  Appendix. 


XX 

HOW   PRIVILEGE    FIGHTS 

THE  effort  to  "  get  Cleveland  "  by  means  of  the  new 
municipal  code  was  a  dismal  failure.  The  next  move  of 
our  political  foes  was  to  abolish  spring  elections.  For 
a  long  time  there  had  been  a  growing  tendency  in  Ohio 
towards  something  akin  to  independent  voting  in  the  mu- 
nicipal elections  which  were  held  in  the  spring.  Privi- 
lege seemed  to  have  its  best  hold  on  the  State  elections, 
which  occurred  in  the  fall.  Early  in  Governor  Herrick's 
administration  this  question  came  up.  The  governor 
asked  me  what  I  thought  of  it.  I  told  him  I  thought  it 
was  a  good  thing,  that  one  regular  election  a  year  was 
enough.  He  looked  a  bit  surprised  and  I  said,  "  You 
didn't  expect  me  to  say  that,  did  you,  Myron?  "  I  did 
not  discuss  the  motives  for  the  proposed  legislation  with 
him  or  any  of  the  other  advocates  of  it,  but  it  seemed  pass- 
ing strange  that  any  of  them  should  think  us  so  stupid  as 
not  to  see  just  why  they  were  throwing  the  municipal  elec- 
tions in  with  the  state  elections.  They  reasoned  that  on  a 
long  ticket  headed  by  the  candidates  for  governor  and 
other  state  offices  they  could  surely  count  upon  the  head  of 
the  ticket  carrying  with  it  the  names  at  the  bottom  —  the 
candidates  for  municipal  offices.  Ohio,  staunchly  Repub- 
lican in  State  and  national  elections,  would  finally  rid  itself 
of  those  two  pestilential  creatures,  Jones  and  Johnson,  who 
somehow  kept  getting  elected  as  mayors  of  Toledo  and 

206 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  207 

Cleveland,  one  as  a  non-partisan  and  the  other  as  a  Demo- 
crat. 

Early  in  1904  the  State  legislature  abolished  the  spring 
election  and  because  of  this  the  terms  of  the  principal  muni- 
cipal officers  in  Ohio  cities  instead  of  expiring  in  the  spring 
of  1905  held  over  until  January  I,  1906,  the  officers  for 
that  year  being  elected  in  November,  1905.  This  first 
biennial  state  election  resulted  in  a  practically  clean  sweep, 
but  for  the  Democrats  instead  of  the  Republicans.  The 
verdict  of  the  last  State  election  was  reversed.  For  the 
first  time  in  many  years  and  for  one  of  the  few  times  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  State,  Ohio  elected  a  Democratic 
governor.  Mayor  Jones  had  died  but  the  non-partisan 
movement  in  Toledo  was  stronger  than  ever  and  not  only 
was  Brand  Whitlock  elected  to  succeed  Jones  but  he  car- 
ried with  him  into  office  the  other  municipal  candidates 
on  the  non-partisan  ticket  —  a  result  never  achieved  in 
Mayor  Jones's  lifetime.  In  Cleveland  we  elected  our 
whole  ticket  including  our  legislative  candidates,  a  fine 
body  of  democratic  Democrats. 

Shortly  thereafter  it  was  provided  by  constitutional 
amendment  that  State  officers  should  be  elected  at  one 
election  and  municipal  officers  at  another,  so  this  election 
of  1905  was  the  only  one  which  combined  a  State  with  a 
municipal  election. 

My  own  plurality  was  the  largest  I  had  ever  received, 
being  double  that  of  either  of  my  previous  elections.  In 
that  campaign  my  opponent  was  William  H.  Boyd,  the 
only  Republican  candidate  who  ever  consented  to  debate 
with  me,  and  the  one  who  put  up  the  most  manly  fight  of 
any  who  ever  ran  against  me.  For  some  reason  Mr. 
Boyd  did  not  have  the  undivided  support  of  the  business 


208  MY  STORY 

and  privileged  interests,  a  rather  significant  fact  in  the 
face  of  his  willingness  to  debate  campaign  issues.  When 
I  suggested  the  debates  I  asked  Mr.  Boyd  to  join  with  me 
in  arranging  for  them  without  the  formality  of  a  challenge 
from  either  side.  He  agreed  and  it  was  part  of  the  ar- 
rangement that  he  should  make  the  rules  for  one  meeting, 
I  for  the  next  and  so  on.  When  the  plans  were  completed 
I  said  to  him, 

4  You  are  a  trained  speaker  in  daily  practice  before 
courts  and  juries  and  have  an  immense  advantage  over 
me,  but  I  am  going  to  beat  you  in  these  debates."  This 
nettled  him  a  little  and  he  asked  me  why.  I  said, 

"  Because  I  know  this  case  better  than  it  is  possible  for 
you  to  equip  yourself  to  understand  it  between  now  and 
election  day." 

We  had  six  enormous  meetings  in  halls,  the  last  four 
in  Central  Armory,  the  largest  auditorium  in  the  city. 
We  preserved  good  order  in  spite  of  bad  blood  on  both 
sides  and  the  tremendous  interest  of  our  respective  par- 
tisans. I  had  taken  the  precaution  to  have  the  floor  cov- 
ered with  sawdust,  for  I  had  often  seen  meetings  prac- 
tically broken  up  by  someone  who  could  not  hear,  per- 
haps, rising  to  go  out  and  making  such  a  noise  on  the 
floor  that  immediately  everyone  else  who  had  difficulty  in 
hearing  felt  encouraged  to  do  the  same  thing.  So  the  saw- 
dust prevented  a  lot  of  noise  and  ensured  most  of  the  peo- 
ple staying  through  the  meetings.  Large-faced  clocks 
were  placed  in  full  view  of  the  audience  and  by  these  our 
time  was  divided.  It  was  one  of  the  rules  that  any  erup- 
tion or  disturbance  on  the  part  of  the  audience  was  to  be 
deducted  from  the  time  of  the  party  supposed  to  benefit 
by  it,  and  I  have  frequently  seen  wild  demonstrations  al- 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  209 

most  instantly  quelled  by  a  mere  gesture  of  the  time- 
keeper toward  the  clock.  As  I  got  to  know  Mr.  Boyd 
better  I  appreciated  that  his  motives  were  more  sincere 
and  much  nearer  the  public  good  than  they  were  credited 
with  being  by  his  enemies.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
debates  helped  our  side. 

There  had  been  fifteen  injunctions  against  the  low  fare 
movement  by  this  time  but  we  were  patiently  hammering 
away  on  our  original  proposition.  The  Cleveland  Street 
Railway  Company  had  made  various  experiments  in  the 
matter  of  fares.  After  abandoning  the  six  tickets  for  a 
quarter  and  universal  transfers  they  tried  three-cent  fares, 
then  four-cent  fares  for  stated  short  periods,  none  of  the 
trials  being  made  in  really  good  faith,  and  yet  all  showing 
the  weakness  of  the  company's  case.  The  city  was  con- 
sistently pursuing  its  policy  of  granting  no  renewals  of 
franchises  and  the  question  of  expiring  franchises  was 
constantly  coming  up. 

The  best  street  railway  grant  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  public  interest  is  one  that  has  already  expired.  The 
public  has  no  interest  in  a  franchise  being  for  any  specific 
length  of  time.  The  time  limit  serves  private  interests 
and  affords  an  excuse  for  tying  the  public's  hands.  For 
three  or  four  years  short  lines  and  parts  of  other  lines 
were  permitted  by  the  city  to  operate  without  specific 
grants.  I  recall  one  case  where  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  connect  up  a  big  public  park  with  a  new  line.  The 
street  railway  and  the  city  couldn't  agree  on  a  grant,  so 
I  said  to  the  company,  "  Go  ahead  and  build  the  line. 
The  city  won't  bother  you.  Some  taxpayer  may,  but  if 
you  are  quick  enough  I  don't  believe  you  will  meet  any 
opposition  in  that  direction." 


2io  MY  STORY 

That  line,  one-half  mile  long,  was  built  and  put  into 
operation  very  quickly.  A  great  hue  and  cry  was  raised 
in  council  because  the  line  had  been  built  without  a  grant. 
Councilmen  not  friendly  to  our  movement  raised  the  ob- 
jection. I  explained  the  danger  of  making  a  grant  as 
compared  to  the  safety  of  what  had  been  done  but  they 
were  not  satisfied.  I  then  suggested  that  if  council  would 
pass  an  order  to  tear  up  the  tracks  I  would  see  that  it 
was  done.  No  one  was  willing  to  make  such  a  move  and 
the  mere  suggestion  of  it  cooled  the  ardor  of  the  critics. 
They  said  they  were  in  the  minority  and  hadn't  votes 
enough  for  such  action.  Finally  I  said  to  them, 

"  If  you  will  offer  a  resolution  protesting  against  this 
and  argue  it  in  council,  I'll  see  that  the  line  is  taken  up 
even  if  the  resolution  doesn't  pass." 

This  took  away  their  last  argument  as  I  knew  it  would. 
No  one  was  willing  to  interfere  with  so  obviously  neces- 
sary an  improvement.  I  was  criticized  for  this  and  ac- 
cused of  disregarding  the  law,  but  the  only  sensible  thing 
to  do  was  to  build.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  more  street 
railroad  grants  are  not  made  on  such  terms,  for  this 
avoids  the  necessity  of  giving  away  a  lot  of  public  rights 
or  tying  them  up  for  a  definite  period,  for  any  grant  how- 
ever safe-guarded  might  be  interpreted  by  the  courts  as 
giving  some  rights  and  prolonged  litigation  would  cer- 
tainly follow  in  which  the  company  would  gain  time  if 
nothing  more.  It  got  to  be  one  of  the  features  of  our 
controversy  that  the  street  railroad  could  build  lines,  but 
couldn't  get  grants. 

Here  is  a  specific  case  in  point  which  illustrates  the  wis- 
dom of  such  a  course :  A  street  railway  line  was  needed 
around  the  new  postoffice  building.  Everybody  wanted 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  211 

it,  but  in  this  instance  the  street  railway  company  didn't 
want  to  build  it.  Nothing  short  of  an  act  of  Congress 
could  bestow  the  property  owners'  consents  necessary  to  a 
valid  grant,  for  the  federal  government  owned  a  majority 
of  the  feet  front  on  each  of  the  four  sides  of  the  building. 
The  city  therefore,  without  power  from  council  or  any 
other  legal  authority,  and  even  without  funds  for  this 
specific  purpose,  did  construct  this  piece  of  railroad  and 
owned  it.  Any  property  owner  in  the  city,  any  taxpayer 
could  have  prevented  it  by  applying  to  the  courts,  but  in 
all  this  big  city  of  Cleveland  there  wasn't  one  person  with 
sufficient  hardihood  to  interfere.  It  only  shows  what  can 
be  done  when  everybody  is  willing  and  what  obstacles 
can  be  thrown  in  the  way  when  some  private  interest  is 
trying  to  balk  a  public  enterprise.  There  is  hardly  a  city 
in  the  country  where  there  are  not  a  lot  of  unused  grants 
which  street  railway  companies  preserve  very  carefully, 
running  cars  over  them  once  a  month  or  at  some  other 
regular  interval. 

Municipal  ownership  would  save  all  this.  Without 
the  private  interest  street  railroads  would  be  built  with  the 
same  care  and  operated  with  the  same  considerations  of 
public  utility  that  obtain  in  fire  lines  and  police  stations. 
A  careful  study  of  all  we  did  in  the  long  street  railroad 
war  in  Cleveland  furnishes  the  best  arguments  I  know  in 
favor  of  public  ownership  and  operation  of  this  kind  of 
property. 

Grant  for  the  sake  of  argument  that  a  municipally 
owned  street  railroad  will  not  be  as  economically  man- 
aged in  some  directions  as  one  privately  owned,  but  there 
are  a  great  many  credits  to  this  account.  There  wouldn't 
be  the  foolish  and  expensive  litigation  that  private  com- 


212  MY  STORY 

panics  indulge  in.  There  wouldn't  be  the  laying  down 
of  routes  to  prevent  competition.  To  be  sure,  cars 
might  be  kept  extravagantly  neat  and  clean,  and  passen- 
gers might  receive  wasteful  consideration,  the  pay  of  the 
men  might  not  be  put  down  to  the  lowest  possible  notch 
and  strikes  to  enable  the  payment  of  dividends  wouldn't 
exist  at  all. 

The  opponents  of  municipal  ownership  would  bring  all 
these  objections  which  you  now  hear  against  street  rail- 
roads as  readily  against  the  municipal  operation  of  the  fire 
department  if  they  had  any  idea  they  could  make  them 
pay.  But  arguments  for  fire  departments  in  private 
hands  have  almost  passed  away.  Fire  departments  oper- 
ated by  private  interests  and  protected  by  public  franchises 
are  said  to  exist  in  China  now,  and  as  a  matter  of  history 
did  exist  in  the  time  of  the  Caesars.  The  franchise 
for  putting  out  fires  was  considered  a  very  valuable  right 
by  the  plutocratic  public  service  corporations  of  ancient 
Rome. 

Our  fights  were  not  always  with  Privilege  from  the 
outside.  When  councilmen  could  be  reached  and  made 
to  oppose  measures  for  the  public  good,  the  representa- 
tives of  Privilege  were  probably  happiest.  They  knew 
what  happens  to  a  house  divided  against  itself  and  some 
of  the  hardest  contests  we  had  wa^  to  keep  the  council  in 
line  for  the  city.  I  think  I  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact 
that  we  were  working  for  the  city.  Accustomed  to  think 
in  business  terms,  I  regarded  Cleveland  as  a  great  corpo- 
ration —  the  biggest  in  the  State  of  Ohio  —  its  inhabi- 
tants as  the  stockholders  and  the  city  officers  as  the  direc- 
tors. 

Roughly  speaking,  there  are  three  kinds  of  councilmen, 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  213 

just  as  there  are  three  kinds  of  congressmen  and  three 
kinds  of  State  legislators.  There  is  the  earnest,  intelli- 
gent man  working  for  better  things,  there  is  the  crook 
working  for  better  pay,  there  is  the  painstaking  good 
fellow  working  for  he  doesn't  know  what.  He  wants 
to  be  right,  tries  to  be  right,  thinks  he  is  right,  but  is 
conscientiously  wrong  on  almost  every  subject.  A  com- 
bination of  any  two  of  these  classes  in  any  legislative  body 
always  wins.  The  least  hopeful,  the  hardest  to  move 
because  of  his  imaginary  virtues  is  the  one  who  belongs 
to  the  third  class.  I  always  got  the  best  results 
from  combinations  of  the  first  and  second  classes,  for  the 
second,  whatever  his  other  shortcomings  may  be,  is  usu- 
ally wise  —  too  wise  to  be  fooled  —  and  between  right 
things  and  wrong  things,  unless  the  price  is  high  enough, 
he  will  be  for  the  right.  He  won't  go  wrong  just  for 
the  fun  of  it.  Left  to  his  natural  bent  and  usual  good 
judgment  he  will  go  right.  My  experience  in  this  direc- 
tion has  impressed  two  things  very  strongly  upon  me  — 
one,  that  the  intelligent  crook  may  be  relied  upon  many  \ 
times  when  the  perfectly  good,  well-intentioned  man  will 
fail;  two,  that  legislative  bodies  left  to  themselves  will  go 
as  nearly  right  as  the  native  honesty  and  intelligence  of 
the  members  make  possible,  for  the  corruption  of  such 
bodies  comes  from  without,  not  from  within. 

We  had  some  experience  in  this  direction  when  the 
East  Ohio  Gas  Company  was  negotiating  with  the  city 
for  a  franchise.  The  application  for  a  franchise  was 
made  in  a  tentative  sort  of  way.  The  whole  thing  had 
an  air  of  mystery  about  it  at  first  and  I  didn't  understand 
what  the  hesitation  was  about  until  I  met  a  friend  who 
asked  me  whether  the  fact  that  the  Standard  Oil  people 


2i4  MY  STORY 

owned  the  natural  gas  wells  would  handicap  a  company 
seeking  the  franchise.  I  answered  that  it  would  have 
the  other  effect.  It  would  inspire  me  with  confidence  that 
they  wanted  to  build  a  gas  plant  and  not  get  a  franchise 
to  sell  out.  I  learned  then  that  this  idea  that  I  would  be 
antagonistic  because  of  the  connection  of  Standard  Oil 
Company  people  was  what  held  them  back.  John 
O'Day,  head  of  that  branch  of  investment,  came  to  Cleve- 
land to  see  me  then  and  asked  frankly  whether  the  East 
Ohio  could  get  a  franchise.  I  told  him  I  would  use  my 
influence  to  that  end  if  they  didn't  attempt  to  tamper  with 
the  council.  I  told  him  that  whatever  trade  was  made 
must  be  for  the  benefit  of  gas  users  and  when  we  had 
agreed  on  the  price  he  must  take  his  people  away,  leaving 
everything  else  to  the  council  and  to  me. 

Matters  progressed  smoothly  at  first,  but  it  wasn't  long 
before  opposition  to  the  proposition  sprang  up  among  the 
coal  dealers  and  the  artificial  gas  people.  After  a  long 
fight,  in  which  I  made  some  offensive  charges  against 
members  of  council  in  connection  with  these  last  named 
interests,  we  got  to  a  place  where  the  measure  was  to  be 
finally  passed  or  defeated  on  a  certain  night.  On  the 
afternoon  of  that  day  Councilman  Kohl  came  to  me  and 
said  that  a  man  named  Dr.  Daykin  had  offered  him  five 
thousand  dollars  in  cash  for  his  vote  and  asked  me  what 
he  should  do  about  it. 

"  If  you  were  really  a  game  man  I  would  suggest  a  line 
of  action,"  I  answered,  "  but  I  don't  think  you  would 
carry  it  out,  so  there's  no  use  in  my  advising  you." 

This  appealed  to  his  vanity  and  he  begged  me  to  ad- 
vise him.  He  said  he  would  do  anything  I  suggested  ex- 
cept go  to  jail,  and  he'd  even  do  that  if  I  would  promise 


MR.  JOHNSON   IN    1905 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  215 

to  protect  him.  I  therefore  advised  him  to  keep  his  ap- 
pointment with  Dr.  Daykin  and  take  whatever  money  was 
offered  to  him.  In  less  than  two  hours  he  came  back 
with  two  thousand  dollars. 

That  night  a  dramatic  scene  occurred  in  the  council 
chamber.  I  was  speaking,  Dr.  Daykin  was  among  the 
spectators  sitting  outside  the  railing.  I  charged  that  at- 
tempts had  been  made  to  bribe  some  of  the  councilmen 
in  order  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  ordinance.  The 
charge  created  a  sensation,  for  bribery  wasn't  taken 
lightly  in  that  body,  or  in  that  community.  The  coun- 
cilmen and  the  lobby  were  giving  the  closest  attention  to 
what  I  was  saying.  The  interest  was  intense.  At  a  cer- 
tain point  in  my  speech  and  by  pre-arrangement  with 
Kohl  he  threw  the  two  thousand  dollars  on  the  table  be- 
fore me,  and  no  other  proof  of  my  charges  was  necessary. 
In  the  excitement  Dr.  Daykin  hurried  for  the  door,  but  I 
was  watching  him  and  called  out,  "  You  won't  get  very 
far,  Doctor.  Some  of  my  friends  are  waiting  for  you 
outside."  The  ordinance  passed  without  a  dissenting 
vote.  Whether  it  would  have  been  possible  to  carry  it 
without  this  incident  I  do  not  know. 

Dr.  Daykin  was  arrested  and  after  a  long  trial  in  which 
many  persons  testified  he  was  acquitted.  We  thought  he 
was  acting  for  a  combination  of  coal  dealers  and  the  arti- 
ficial gas  people,  but  did  not  know  positively,  and  weren't 
able  to  prove  it. 

The  reason  I  wanted  the  franchise  passed  to  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  people  was  that  I  was  eager  to  get  for  the  people 
of  Cleveland  cleaner  and  cheaper  fuel  and  light  than  the 
coal  companies  or  the  artificial  gas  people  could  furnish 
them.  I  believed  the  Standard  Oil  people  had  a  monop- 


216  MY  STORY 

oly  of  the  natural  gas  field  —  there  was  no  one  else  from 
whom  to  buy  —  the  city  could  not  compete  with  them. 

Whatever  the  fault  of  the  Standard  monopoly  it  wasn't 
due  to  Cleveland  or  to  Ohio;  neither  the  city  nor  the 
State  was  responsible  for  it.  At  bottom  it  was  a  land 
monopoly.  Our  friends  the  Socialists  hold  that  such 
monopolies  should  be  taken  over  by  the  government  and 
operated  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  I  contend  that 
they  can  be  taxed  out  of  existence.  It  really  doesn't 
make  a  great  deal  of  difference,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  how- 
ever, whether  the  community  owns  and  operates  a  monop- 
oly, or  whether  it  takes  in  taxes  the  value  to  which  it  is 
rightfully  entitled.  That  the  people  should  get  the  ben- 
efit is  the  important  thing  —  the  method  is  secondary. 

One  of  our  liveliest  fights  —  the  one  on  which  the  final 
success  of  our  municipal  lighting  plant  was  based  —  has 
already  been  alluded  to  along  with  the  activity  of  the 
Cleveland  Electric  Illuminating  Company  and  its  success 
in  preventing  the  repassage  of  the  ordinance  by  council 
and  the  special  bond  issue  election.  In  the  fall  of  1903 
we  lost  the  bond  issues  which  were  submitted,  along  with 
everything  else,  so  our  municipal  lighting  project  was 
still  a  thing  of  the  future.  In  the  1904  election  the  citi- 
zens of  Cleveland  voted  eight  to  one  and  those  of  the 
village  of  South  Brooklyn  three  to  one  in  favor  of  an- 
nexing South  Brooklyn  to  the  city.  The  city  council  ap- 
pointed City  Solicitor  Newton  D.  Baker,  Frederic  C. 
Howe  and  James  P.  Madigan,  annexation  commissioners. 
Now  South  Brooklyn  owned  a  small  electric  lighting 
plant  and  for  this  reason  Privilege  was  opposed  to  an- 
nexation. To  have  Cleveland  acquire  a  municipal  light- 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  217 

ing  plant  in  this  way  was  as  obnoxious  to  the  Cleveland 
Electric  Illuminating  Company  as  the  city's  other  plan 
had  been,  and  it's  fight  was  now  directed  against  annexa- 
tion. The  first  move  was  to  have  council  reconsider  its 
action  on  the  appointment  of  the  annexation  commission 
and  appoint  another  friendly  to  the  lighting  company.  I 
refused  to  confirm  the  appointment  of  this  second  com- 
mission and  publicly  charged  fifteen  Republican  council- 
men  with  misfeasance  and  two  Democrats  with  bribery. 
A  councilmanic  investigation  was  started.  The  city  so- 
licitor ordered  the  Cleveland  Electric  Illuminating  Com- 
pany to  open  its  books  for  examination  by  council.  The 
company  got  out  a  temporary  injunction  restraining  the 
city  from  enforcing  this  demand,  which  order  was  made 
permanent  a  few  days  later  by  Judge  Beacom,  whom  I 
had  appointed  director  of  law  at  the  beginning  of  my  first 
administration.  The  city  carried  the  case  to  the  circuit 
court,  which  sustained  the  decision  of  the  lower  court,  and 
so  the  investigation  was  effectually  blocked.  I  made  the 
unfriendly  councilmen  very  angry  by  maintaining  that  the 
Cleveland  Electric  Illuminating  Company  seemed  to  have 
more  power  than  forty  thousand  voters,  but  it  was  true 
that  the  expressed  will  of  the  people  in  the  1904  election 
had  to  wait  more  than  a  year  before  it  could  be  put  into 
effect.  Before  the  next  election  I  went  into  the  wards  of 
the  two  Democratic  councilmen,  above  referred  to,  and 
defeated  their  re-nomination. 

After  the  pronounced  victory  in  the  1905  election,  when 
we  carried  twenty-five  of  the  twenty-six  wards  of  the  city, 
the  councilmen  got  together  and  voted  to  accept  the  re- 
port of  the  annexation  commissioners,  which  provided  for 


2i8  MY  STORY 

the  immediate  annexation  of  South  Brooklyn.  The  coun- 
cils of  both  city  and  village  passed  the  necessary  ordi- 
nances, December  n,  1905. 

Under  the  law,  annexation  would  not  be  complete  un- 
til a  record  was  filed  with  the  county  recorder  and  a  copy 
forwarded  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  The  work  involved 
in  preparing  these  papers  prevented  the  completion  of  the 
annexation  until  the  Thursday  following  the  Monday 
night  council  meeting,  but  in  the  meantime,  on  Tuesday 
morning,  the  mayor  and  the  solicitor  of  the  village  of 
South  Brooklyn  called  at  the  City  Hall,  and  told  Peter 
Witt,  the  city  clerk,  that  an  ordinance  granting  a  renewal 
of  street  car  rights  on  certain  streets  to  the  Cleveland 
Electric  Street  Railway  Company  had  had  two  readings 
and  that  they  feared  it  might  be  given  a  third  reading 
and  passed,  thereby  further  entangling  the  street  car  sit- 
uation. Without  consulting  anybody  Witt'  called  up 
Chief  Kohler  and  asked  for  an  officer.  His  request  was 
at  once  complied  with  and  he  hustled  one  of  his  deputies 
and  the  policeman  off  in  a  municipal  automobile  with  in- 
structions to  bring  back  the  town  clerk  and  all  the  records 
of  the  village  of  South  Brooklyn.  The  automobile  got 
back  to  the  City  Hall  about  noon  with  the  cargo  it  had 
gone  after.  The  village  clerk  turned  over  all  the  records, 
but  Witt  was  taking  no  chances  and  at  his  request  three 
policemen  were  detailed  to  watch  the  town  hall  in  South 
Brooklyn,  the  village  policemen  (three  in  number)  were 
also  given  instructions  to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  and  to  break 
up  any  attempt  to  hold  a  council  meeting.  No  such  at- 
tempt was  made  and  by  Thursday  annexation  was  finally 
accomplished,  and  Cleveland  was  in  possession  of  a  small 
municipal  lighting  plant. 


HOW  PRIVILEGE  FIGHTS  219 

The  city  later  acquired  another  such  plant  in  the  an- 
nexation of  Collinwood. 

When  Newburg  was  in  process  of  being  annexed  to 
Cleveland  a  twenty-five-year  franchise  to  the  Cleveland 
Electric  Street  Railway  Company  was  hurried  through  the 
village  council,  the  signature  of  the  mayor  only  being  re- 
quired to  complete  the  ordinance.  The  newspapers  all 
said  that  the  mayor  had  announced  that  he  would  sign  it, 
and  that  was  the  general  expectation.  The  last  meeting 
of  the  village  council  was  held  the  last  night  that  the  vil- 
lage had  legal  existence  as  such,  and  it  certainly  looked 
as  if  our  problems  were  to  be  complicated  by  a  village 
grant  to  the  street  railway  company.  But  at  the  last  mo- 
ment the  mayor  vetoed  the  ordinance.  The  newspapers 
said  that  the  first  intimation  anybody  had  that  he  was  not 
going  to  sign  was  when  he  called  up  his  wife  that  night 
and  told  her  he  had  changed  his  mind.  Our  whole  move- 
ment seemed  to  be  constantly  beset  with  incidents  fraught 
with  the  greatest  possibilities  of  defeat  or  success.  There 
was  something  doing  all  the  time. 

It  was  early  in  my  third  term  that  Chief  Kohler  found 
it  necessary  to  take  drastic  steps  to  stamp  out  an  effort  to 
revive  public  gambling.  In  a  rapidly  growing  city  with 
a  numerically  inadequate  police  force,  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  keep  this  vice  within  bounds.  Kohler  did  it, 
though,  but  he  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  heroic  measures 
on  occasion.  He  seized  the  gambling  paraphernalia  from 
a  hotel  and  smashed  it  with  an  ax,  destroying  two  ma- 
hogany tables,  cards,  markers  and  chips.  After  his  third 
raid  on  this  hotel  the  chief  appealed  to  John  D.  Rockefel- 
ler as  owner  of  the  property  to  cooperate  with  him  in  his 
efforts  to  stop  gambling  there.  Kohler  has  a  way  of 


220  MY  STORY 

holding  the  owners  of  property  responsible  for  the  uses 
to  which  it  is  put  instead  of  placing  all  the  blame  upon 
the  tenants,  which  is  sometimes  very  disconcerting  to  big 
landlords. 

At  the  very  time  when  gamblers  were  inveighing  against 
the  administration  on  one  hand,  the  ministerial  associa- 
tion of  the  city  was  complaining  about  it  on  the  other. 
Personal  representatives  of  both  called  upon  me.  The 
gamblers  admitted  that  I  had  "  played  no  favorites,"  but 
had  treated  them  all  alike,  and  the  ministers  gave  me 
credit  for  not  making  promises  and  then  breaking  them. 
I  really  took  some  pains  to  explain  to  these  last  named 
gentlemen  that  I  was  quite  as  much  interested  in  the  wel- 
fare of  society  as  they  were,  but  that  I  was  trying  to  reach 
the  root  cause  of  the  conditions  of  which  they  complained, 
whereas  they  seemed  to  be  concerned  with  symptoms  only. 

But  whatever  the  other  matters  that  engaged  our  at- 
tention they  were  small  compared  to  the  street  railroad 
question  which  was  always  up.  It  was  this  that  engaged 
most  of  our  time,  used  up  our  energy  and  taxed  our  in- 
genuity. The  chief  reason  why  this  was  such  a  big  ques- 
tion was  that  it  involved  the  largest  financial  problem, 
for  the  receipts  from  the  street  railroad  were  about  equal 
to  the  receipts  of  the  city  government  from  all  sources. 


XXI 

PERSONAL   LIABILITY   SUIT  AND  THE    "  PRESS  " 
GUARANTEE 

THE  summer  of  1906  found  the  street  railway  fight 
raging  fiercely.  It  was  constantly  growing  in  intensity 
and  bitterness  and  in  personal  animosity  towards  me. 
This  animosity  culminated  in  the  fall  of  1906  in  an  effort 
to  connect  me  personally  with  the  three-cent-fare  street 
railroad  grants.  The  old  company  contended  in  one 
breath  that  these  grants  had  no  value,  and  in  the  next  that 
my  relationship  to  them  was  so  close  that  it  constituted  a 
personal  pecuniary  interest.  This  personal  liability  ques- 
tion grew  out  of  an  injunction  to  prevent  the  low-fare 
people  from  operating  cars  on  Concon  tracks  for  about 
six  hundred  feet  on  Detroit  avenue, —  which  tracks  had 
been  for  years  considered  free  to  joint  occupancy  of  any 
company  with  the  consent  of  the  city. 

The  Concon  proposed  to  show  personal  financial  inter- 
est in  the  low-fare  company  on  my  part,  thereby  proving 
invalid  the  grant  signed  by  me  as  mayor.  A  summary 
of  the  low-fare  movement  from  its  inception  to  this  time 
will  help  the  reader  to  understand  the  absurdity  of  this 
foolish  charge. 

The  aim  of  the  low-fare  propaganda  was  municipal 
ownership  which  the  laws  of  Ohio  did  not  permit,  but  we 
were  getting  ready  for  it  in  making  the  fight  for  better 
service  and  lower  fares,  thus  teaching  the  people  that  they 
had  some  jurisdiction  in  the  regulation  of  public  service 

221 


222  MY  STORY 

utilities.  Our  entire  Cleveland  fight  in  one  sense  was  a 
struggle  to  have  recognized  the  sacredness  of  public  prop- 
erty by  private  interests  as  the  sacredness  of  private  prop- 
erty is  recognized  by  public  interests.  We  never  attacked 
private  property.  We  were  always  engaged  in  the  strug- 
gle to  force  the  recognition  of  the  rights  of  public  prop- 
erty, whether  in  public  hands  or  private  hands.  We 
never  advocated  the  breaking  of  a  contract,  no  matter 
how  unfair  that  contract  was  to  the  people,  but  constantly 
resisted  the  claims  and  quibbles  of  ingenious  lawyers  to 
extend  over  public  property  private  rights  that  did  not 
exist. 

In  spite  of  the  tremendous  pressure  brought  against  it 
by  the  public  service  corporations,  through  unfair  news- 
papers, constant  litigation,  and  political  tricks  of  various 
kinds,  the  low-fare  movement  made  its  way.  The  or- 
ganization of  a  new  traction  company  known  as  the  Forest 
City  Railway  Company  was  secured  and  grants  were  made 
to  this  company  with  the  provision  that  they  could  be  ac- 
quired by  the  city  at  not  more  than  ten  per  cent,  above 
cost,  as  soon  as  a  municipal  ownership  law  could  be  ob- 
tained. The  Forest  City  line  was  obstructed  every  time 
it  made  a  move,  as  has  already  been  repeatedly  shown. 
It  costs  money  to  build  and  equip  railroads,  but  the  ex- 
pense is  enormous  when  you  add  to  it  the  cost  of  litiga- 
tion growing  out  of  a  new  injunction  suit  nearly  every 
day.  It  was  not  easy  to  capitalize  an  enterprise  which 
was  so  badly  handicapped,  and  to  find  a  person  too  honest 
to  be  bought,  willing  to  take  the  risk  of  losing  money 
without  any  possibility  of  making  more  than  an  ordinary 
six  or  seven  per  cent,  investment  was  one  of  the  most 
difficult  tasks  I  had  to  face  during  the  whole  of  the  low- 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  223 

fare  fight.  But  the  man  for  just  this  emergency  came 
to  us  in  the  person  of  my  friend,  ex-Congressman  Ben  T. 
Cable  of  Rock  Island,  Illinois.  Mr.  Cable  put  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  into  the  company  and  later  an 
additional  two  or  three  hundred  thousand.  At  any  time 
when  the  fight  was  warm  he  could  have  sold  out  to  the  old 
company  at  an  immense  profit,  and  not  only  defeated  the 
low- fare  movement  but  brought  discredit  upon  all  con- 
nected with  it.  He  fulfilled  every  obligation  and  his  serv- 
ice to  our  cause  cannot  be  over-estimated.  I  didn't  see 
then  and  I  don't  see  now  how  we  could  have  prevented  a 
disastrous  defeat  without  Mr.  Cable's  timely  assistance. 

The  opposition  newspapers  meanly  insinuated  that  he 
must  have  some  ulterior  motive  and  delighted  in  calling 
him  my  "  cousin,"  as  if  to  prove  thereby  that  he  could  not 
aid  the  low-fare  fight  in  a  disinterested  way.  When  the 
final  history  of  that  struggle  shall  be  written  Mr.  Cable's 
service  will  surely  be  given  the  high  place  that  it  de- 
serves. 

In  1905  the  city  proposed  to  the  old  company  a  settle- 
ment of  the  whole  vexed  problem  by  means  of  the  organi- 
zation of  a  holding  company.  It  was  my  idea  that  this 
holding  company  should  take  over  all  the  street  railway 
interests  of  the  city  as  lessee.  A  fair  rental  should  be 
paid  and  the  property  operated  in  the  interests  of  the  pub- 
lic and  not  for  profit.  As  security  to  the  old  company  a 
twenty  year  franchise  should  be  granted  to  the  holding 
company  with  the  agreement  that  it  should  revert  to  the 
private  interests  if  the  holding  company  failed  to  make 
good  under  the  terms  of  the  lease.  The  city  offered  to 
place  a  valuation  of  eighty-five  dollars  a  share  on  the 
Concbn  stock,  which  figure  was  much  too  high,  for  the 


224  MY  STORY 

price  offered  would  have  given  the  old  company  about 
three  times  as  much  for  their  property  and  unexpired 
franchises  as  it  would  have  cost  to  rebuild  the  whole  sys- 
tem in  first  class  condition.  The  advantages  that  would 
accrue  to  the  city  it  is  impossible  to  measure  in  money,  as 
it  would  remove  the  biggest  incentive  for  bad  govern- 
ment by  Big  Business.  This  offer  they  rejected  and  in 
1908  they  were  forced  to  accept  a  settlement  based  on  a 
price  of  fifty-five  dollars  a  share. 

The  Municipal  Traction  Company  was  then  organized 
as  the  holding  company  and  completed  in  the  summer  of 
1906  with  A.  B.  du  Pont  as  president  and  director, 
Charles  W.  Stage,  Frederic  C.  Howe,  Edward  Wieben- 
son  and  William  Greif  as  the  other  directors,  and  W.  B. 
Colver  as  secretary.  The  directors  were  salaried  and 
self-perpetuating,  but  neither  they  nor  the  company  were 
to  profit  in  any  other  way.  Their  books  were  open  to  the 
public  and  all  their  transactions  were  public.  The  hold- 
ing company  owned  no  railroad,  but  became  the  lessee  of 
the  Forest  City  Company.  The  capital  for  construction 
was  raised  by  the  sale  of  Forest  City  stock  at  ninety  cents 
on  the  dollar  and  deposited  in  trust  for  use  in  construction 
by  the  holding  company.  The  holding  company  agreed 
to  construct  and  operate  the  low-fare  lines,  to  pay  six 
per  cent,  on  the  capital,  to  pay  off  the  capital  at  ten  per 
cent,  above  par  and  to  devote  the  entire  surplus  to  exten- 
sions and  improvements.  Everything  had  been  done 
openly.  There  had  been  no  secret  negotiations  with  the 
old  company  nor  in  other  directions. 

Both  the  Cleveland  Electric  and  the  Forest  City  were 
seeking  franchises.  As  the  Cleveland  Electric  was  known 
as  the  Concon,  so  the  Forest  City  and  the  other  low-fare 


Photo  by  L.  Van  Ocyen 

Asking  the  Mayor's  permission  to  play  ball  on  streets 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  225 

companies  organized  later  were  called  the  Threefer. 
Here  is  a  parallel  comparison  of  their  offers  to  the  city 
for  such  franchises: 

CONCON.  THREEFER. 

CASH   FARES. 

Five  cents.  Three  cents. 

TICKET  FARES. 

Seven    for    twenty-five    cents;     Three  cents. 
3%  or  3.57. 

TRANSFERS. 

Limited  as  at  present  to  lines  to  Universal  under  constant  coun- 
be  built.  cil  regulation. 

FRANCHISES. 

Irrevocable  grants.     Bargain  to     Revocable  grants.     Franchise  to 
be  made  now  for  twenty-five          be  terminated  at  any  time, 
years. 

SERVICE. 

Promises  with  no  reserved  right  Full  power  left  to  council  to 
to  council  to  enforce.  regulate  at  any  time  under 

penalty     of     revoking     fran- 
chises. 

EXTENSIONS. 

Promised,  but  at  discretion  of  Promised  and  discretion  left  in 
the  company;  profit  on  un-  the  city;  profit  on  actual  cost 
limited  capitalization.  only. 

SUBWAYS   AND   ELEVATEDS. 

Subways  or  elevateds  some  time,  Subways  and  elevateds  when- 
if  a  rate  of  fare  can  be  agreed  ever  council  directs,  and  at  a 
upon.  3-cent  fare. 


226  MY  STORY 

CONCON.  THREEFER 

CAPITALIZATION. 

$150,000  per  mile.  $50,000  per  mile. 

DIVIDENDS   AND    PROFITS. 

All  that  can  be  gotten  on  $150,-  Only  six  per  cent,  on  actual 
ooo  per  mile.  money  investment  within 

$50,000  per  mile. 

CITY   OWNERSHIP. 

Prevented  for  at  least  twenty-  Always  possible  if  desired  by 
five  years.  the  people  and  permitted  by 

the  Legislature. 

TITLE   TO   THE    STREETS. 

Passes  absolutely  for  twenty-  Remains  absolutely  in  the  city 
five  years.  for  all  time. 

PUBLICITY. 

Books  closed  to  the  council,  Books  kept  open  to  all  who  may 
city  and  public.  care  to  look. 

POPULAR   VOTE. 

One  vote  to  be  binding  for  Submission  to  the  people  at  any 
twenty-five  years.  time. 

FINALITY   OF    SETTLEMENT. 

Makes  a  repetition  of  the  pres-  Ends  the  struggle  for  elimi- 
ent  struggle  continuous  and  nating  private  interests  from 
inevitable.  this  public  service. 

GROWTH    IN    NET   EARNINGS. 

All    benefits    reserved    to    the      All    benefits    reserved    to    the 
stockholders  of  the  company.          people  of  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land. 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  227 

Early  in  the  summer  council  ordered  the  Concon  to 
move  its  tracks  on  Fulton  road  from  the  center  of  the 
street  to  one  side  to  make  room  for  the  tracks  of  the 
Forest  City,  which  company  had  a  franchise  to  lay  tracks 
on  the  west  side  of  the  street.     Having  had  so  much 
previous  experience  with  the  old  company's  disregard  of 
orders  from  council  the  city  was  authorized  to  remove  the 
tracks  at  the  Concon's  expense,  provided  the  latter  had 
not  complied  with  the  order  at  the  end  of  the  thirty-day 
period  stipulated   therein.     No   attention   whatever  was 
paid  to  the  city's  order;   it  wasn't  even  acknowledged. 
The  thirty  days  elapsed,  then  two  weeks  more ;  then,  early 
on  the  morning  of  July  25  a  big  force  of  workmen  under 
the  direction  of  the  mayor  and  Server  Springborn  pro- 
ceeded to  rip  up  the  tracks.     Every  preparation  for  get- 
ting the  work  done  quickly  and  in  the  best  possible  way, 
and  with  the  least  damage  to  the  pavement,  had  been 
made  in  advance.     The  ends  of  the  track  were  torn  up 
first  so  that  the  cars  of  the  Concon  could  not  block  the 
work.     This  move  on  the  part  of  the  city  was  a  complete 
surprise  and  found  the  old  company  quite  unprepared. 
It  was  about  eleven  o'clock  a.  m.  (and  the  work  had  been 
going  on  since  seven)  before  the  injunctions  were  served 
on  the  mayor  and  Mr.   Springborn.     These   injunctions 
were  so  ambiguously  worded,'  due  no  doubt  to  haste  and 
to  the  court's  lack  of  information  regarding  the  real  facts 
in  the  matter  that  it  was  anything  but  clear  what  they 
proposed  to  restrain.      It  was  too  late  anyway  to  restrain 
us  from  removing  the  tracks  that  were  already  up.     Our 
"  lawlessness  "  occasioned  a  great  howl  among  the  real 
law-breakers  and  Mr.  Springborn  and  I  were  charged  with 
contempt  of  court.     The  contempt  proceedings  occupied 


228  MY  STORY 

about  a  week  and  at  the  end  of  that  time,  on  August  3, 
I  was  exonerated,  but  Mr.  Springborn  —  certainly  the 
least  culpable  of  any  person  connected  with  the  transac- 
tion from  first  to  last  —  was  found  guilty.  He  was  fined 
one  hundred  dollars,  which,  I  am  happy  to  say,  he  never 
paid. 

The  Forest  City  Company,  which  had  proceeded  with 
the  laying  of  its  tracks  on  the  west  side  of  the  street,  was 
enjoined  July  26  and  the  work  had  to  stop  while  the  mat- 
ter was  fought  out  in  the  courts.  Eventually  it  was  able 
to  proceed  once  more.  In  the  city's  case  we  were  also 
successful,  the  court  holding  that  the  city  had  acted  within 
its  rights  and  was  under  no  obligation  to  replace  the  old 
company's  tracks. 

The  track  which  the  city  tore  up  was,  by  a  curious  co- 
incidence, on  the  very  street  the  bidding  on  which  had  been 
the  occasion  of  my  coming  to  Cleveland  twenty-seven 
years  before.  It  was  on  this  street  in  1879  that  I  had 
been  beaten  by  Simms  and  Hanna,  and  it  was  over  this 
street  too  that  a  three-cent  car  was  to  run  a  few  months 
later. 

When  stock  of  the  Forest  City  Company  to  the  amount 
of  $400,000  was  offered  for  sale,  the  Cleveland  Press 
editorially  recommended  it  as  a  safe  investment  for  per- 
sons of  small  means  and  more  profitable  than  savings 
bank  deposits,  describing  the  plan  July  i,  1906,  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  The  Forest  City  Railway  Company  has  sold  $350,000  worth 
of  stock  at  90.  It  has  offered  for  sale  and  is  now  soliciting  sub- 
scriptions for  $400,000  more  of  the  stock.  All  of  this  stock  is  to 
be  put  out  at  90.  The  Municipal  Traction  Company  under  the 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  229 

terms  of  its  lease  of  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company  has  guar- 
anteed 6  per  cent,  cumulative  dividends  on  the  par  value  of  this 
stock.  The  entire  amount  received  for  the  sale  of  this  $750,000 
worth  of  stock  at  90  is  to  be  invested  in  about  13^2  miles  of 
street  railway  construction  and  equipment.  This  means  a  capital- 
ization of  about  $50,000  a  mile;  no  bonds;  no  water.  The  Cleve- 
land Electric  Railway  Company  (the  old  monopoly  company)  is 
bonded  and  capitalized  at  about  $150,000  a  mile.  The  difference 
in  these  two  propositions  must  be  apparent  to  the  merest  tyro  in 
finance." 

The  stock  sales  as  a  result  of  this  stand  on  the  part  of 
the  Press  and  from  advertisements  in  various  magazines 
were  very  satisfactory.  The  Forest  City  railroad  was 
fast  nearing  completion,  twenty-four  injunctions  had  ex- 
pired one  by  one,  there  were  fewer  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  success  than  at  any  time  before,  and  a  three-cent-fare 
railroad  in  actual  operation  in  a  city  where  such  a  thing 
had  for  five  years  been  declared  impossible,  and  where 
no  stone  had  been  left  unturned  to  render  it  impossible, 
was  hourly  becoming  more  and  more  certain  of  accom- 
plishment. This  was  the  status  of  affairs  when  the  per- 
sonal liability  question  was  raised.  For  five  days  I  was 
kept  on  the  witness  stand  in  a  notary's  court  testifying  to 
facts  which  were  matters  of  common  knowledge.  The 
opposition  newspapers  of  Cleveland  referred  to  these  as 
testimony  u  wormed  "  out  of  me,  "  dragged  "  from  me, 
etc.,  and  through  the  Associated  Press  the  newspapers  of 
the  whole  country  were  furnished  with  a  great  talking 
power  against  our  movement.  One  of  the  mooted  ques- 
tions was  whether  I  had  guaranteed  the  Cleveland  Press 
against  loss  when  that  newspaper  had  invited  and  guaran- 


23o  MY  STORY 

teed  stock  subscriptions.  The  Press's  own  statement  on 
the  matter  is  so  clear  and  comprehensive  that  I  quote  it  in 
full.  On  October  24,  1906,  it  had  the  following: 

"  Here's  a  Nice  Little  Scoop  on  the  Concon   Lawyers." 


The  Only  Authentic  Record  of  the  Deep,  Dark  Mystery  of  That 
"  Press  "  Guarantee. 


At  the  examination  of  Mayor  Tom  by  the  Concon  attorneys 
Wednesday  morning,  the  question  was  asked  as  to  whether  Mayor 
Tom  had  guaranteed  The  Cleveland  Press  against  loss  when  The 
Press  guaranteed  the  stock  of  the  Threefer. 

Mayor  Tom  said  that  whatever  there  was  in  the  way  of  such 
a  guarantee  was  in  writing  and  that  he  would  decide  at  the  after- 
noon hearing  whether  or  not  he  would  produce  the  writing. 

It  makes  little  difference  whether  Mayor  Tom  decides  to  pro- 
duce the  writing  or  not,  as  The  Press  happens  to  have  a  copy  and 
by  publishing  it  herewith  scores  a  scoop  on  the  Concon  lawyers: 

Here's  the  writing: 

Whereas,  The  Forest  City  Railway  Company  is  inviting  sub- 
scriptions to  its  six  per  cent.  (6%)  cumulative  dividend  stock, 
and  the  undersigned  desire  to  aid  in  the  establishment  of  a  3-cent- 
fare  street  railway  in  the  city  of  Cleveland,  with  the  ultimate 
municipal  ownership  thereof,  and  to  that  end  desire  to  induce 
popular  subscriptions  in  small  sums  from  the  people  of  Cleve- 
land ;  and 

Whereas,  The  Cleveland  Press  proposes  to  invite  subscriptions 
to  such  stock  and  to  recommend  its  readers  to  make  such  sub- 
scriptions, and  to  offer  to  them  the  guarantee  hereinafter  set  out: 

Now,  therefore,  the  undersigned  hereby  agree,  each  with  the 
other,  and  with  the  Scripps  Publishing  Company,  publishers  of  The 
Cleveland  Press,  and  with  each  subscriber  to  such  stock  through 
the  columns  of  The  Press  as  follows,  to  wit : 

To  each  original  subscriber  or  his  personal  representative  whose 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  231 

subscription  has  been  made  through  The  Cleveland  Press,  and  who 
subscribes  for  an  amount  not  exceeding  two  thousand  dollars 
($2,000)  of  the  par  value  of  said  stock,  we  agree  to  purchase  the 
stock  so  subscribed  on  sixty  days'  notice,  given  within  ten  (10) 
days  after  any  dividend  or  interest  period,  and  to  pay  therefor 
the  amount  paid  by  each  subscriber  with  six  per  cent.  (6%)  in- 
terest thereon  from  the  date  of  his  payment,  less  any  interest  or 
dividend  which  he  has  received;  this  offer  to  purchase  to  be  open 
for  two  (2)  years  from  the  date  thereof. 

They  also  severally  agree  with  The  Scripps  Publishing  Co., 
its  successors  and  assigns,  that  they  will  each  on  demand  repay  to 
it  any  sums  which  it  may  pay  out  under  the  following  guarantee: 

[Here  appears  a  copy  of  the  guarantee  which  was  attached  to 
the  stock  of  each  subscriber,  who  subscribed  for  stock  through  this 
newspaper.] 

In  making  the  above  agreement  and  guarantees,  each  of  the 
undersigned  agrees  to  bear  and  discharge  one-half  of  the  same, 
it  not  being  intended  that  this  shall  constitute  a  joint  obligation 
of  each  for  the  whole. 

It  is  mutually  understood  and  agreed  that  the  amount  of  stock 
to  be  sold  under  the  above  guarantee  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  ($400,000)  of  par  value. 

In  testimony  whereof  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands  and 
affixed  our  seals  this  29th  day  of  June,  A.  D.,  1906. 

E.  W.  SCRIPPS. 
TOM   L.   JOHNSON. 

The  circumstances  under  which  this  contract  was  drawn  up  are 
interesting. 

E.  W.  Scripps,  the  founder  and  controlling  stockholder  of  The 
Press  was  in  Cleveland  last  June  and  expressed  a  desire  to  see 
Mayor  Tom. 

Mayor  Tom  called  on  him  and  among  other  things  discussed 
was  the  progress  of  the  fight  for  lower  street  car  fares. 

Mayor  Tom  outlined  what  had  been  and  what  was  proposed  to 
be  done,  and  Scripps  said:  "  If  you  are  so  sure  of  the  success  of 


23 2  MY  STORY 

your  plans  why  don't  you  personally  guarantee  the  stock  of  the  low- 
fare  company?  " 

"  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  do  so  to  the  extent  of  my  fortune," 
was  the  mayor's  answer. 

"  Well,  I'll  go  halves  with  you  to  the  extent  of  $400,000  worth 
of  stock  which  is  now  for  sale  WITH  THE  DISTINCT 
UNDERSTANDING  THAT  NEITHER  OF  US  IS  TO 
PROFIT  TO  THE  EXTENT  OF  A  DOLLAR,"  said  Scripps. 

Up  to  this  point  the  matter  of  guaranteeing  the  stock  was  a 
personal  matter  between  Scripps  and  Johnson. 

How  to  get  this  guarantee  before  the  people  in  the  best  possible 
way  was  then  taken  up  by  Scripps  with  H.  N.  Rickey,  editor-in- 
chief  of  The  Press. 

After  some  discussion  the  whole  matter  was  turned  over  to 
Rickey,  to  handle  in  any  way  he  saw  fit,  or  not  to  handle  at  all 
so  far  as  The  Press  was  concerned. 

Rickey  consented  to  guarantee  the  stock  through  The  Press,  pro- 
vided neither  Johnson  nor  Scripps  would  consider  any  step  taken 
or  any  contract  drawn  up  as  confidential  and  that  Rickey  would 
be  under  no  obligation,  either  stated  or  implied,  to  keep  any  of 
the  facts  here  set  forth  from  the  readers  of  The  Press,  whenever 
in  his  judgment  they  would  make  a  good  news  article. 

This  seems  to  be  the  psychological  —  not  to  say  dramatic  — 
moment. 

In  passing  it  might  not  be  out  of  place  to  suggest  that  there 
probably  will  not  be  any  doubt,  if  there  ever  has  been  any,  that 
The  Press  guarantee  is  worth  100  cents  on  the  dollar. 

The  next  day  the  Press  said  editorially: 

THAT  HELPS  SOME. 

The  horrible  accusation  is  made  by  the  Concon  and  its  news- 
papers against  E.  W.  Scripps,  The  Cleveland  Press  and  Mayor 
Tom,  that  to  the  extent  of  guaranteeing  investors  against  loss, 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  233 

they  have  lent  their  credit  to  a  three-cent  street  railway  company 
in  Cleveland. 

For  E.  W.  Scripps  and  itself,  The  Cleveland  Press  pleads 
guilty  to  this  accusation. 

As  Mayor  Tom  has  admitted  the  accusation  at  least  fifty  times 
during  the  past  year,  no  further  proof  seems  to  be  necessary. 

The  net  result  to  the  people  of  this  city  of  the  efforts  which 
Mayor  Tom  and  The  Cleveland  Press  have  made  for  lower  street 
car  fares  in  Cleveland  is  this: 

A  three-cent  line  has  been  built  and  equipped  and  will  be  ready 
to  carry  passengers  over  its  fourteen  miles  of  track  just  the 
minute  that  the  Concon  injunction  department  will  permit. 
This  three-cent  line  is  prepared  to  take  over  every  Concon  fran- 
chise as  fast  as  it  expires. 

As  for  the  Concon,  that  company  is,  figuratively  speaking,  on 
its  knees,  begging  the  people  to  extend  its  franchises  for  twenty 
years  at  seven  tickets  for  a  quarter. 

Not  a  bad  situation  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THIS  CITY 
to  be  in,  is  it? 

Were  it  not  for  the  well-known  innate  modesty  of  The  Press, 
we  might  be  inclined  to  crow  a  little  over  the  part  we  have  played 
in  bringing  about  this  most  delightful  situation. 

If  either  the  Concon  or  its  newspapers  will  show  us  how  it  is 
possible  for  the  people  to  lose  when  two  street  railway  companies 
are  fighting  like  the  very  devil  for  the  privilege  of  carrying  pas- 
sengers at  a  rate  of  fare  which  will  mean  the  saving  of  millions 
to  street  car  riders  in  the  next  decade,  we  shall  never  again  say 
one  word  in  favor  of  lower  street  car  fares  in  this  city. 

No  matter  how  hard  The  Press  tries  to  please  the  other  news- 
papers of  this  city,  it  doesn't  seem  able  to  do  it. 

After  twenty-seven  years  of  effort  in  this  direction,  it  doesn't 
appear  to  be  any  nearer  to  it  than  when  it  started. 

Our  only  consolation  is  that  THE  PEOPLE  generally  seem 
to  approve  of  us  and  our  methods;  and  after  all  THAT  HELPS 
SOME. 


234  MY  STORY 

My  own  position  in  the  matter  had  been  publicly  set 
forth  in  a  formal  statement  made  at  the  time  of  the 
"Press  guarantee,"  in  which  I  said: 

"  Inasmuch  as  I  am  associated,  in  the  public  mind,  with  the  en- 
terprises herein  set  forth,  I  deem  it  fitting  that  I  make  a  full 
statement  of  my  position.  I  am  not  now  and  never  have  been 
financially  interested  in  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company.  I 
have,  however,  in  the  discharge  of  my  pledges  to  the  people  of 
Cleveland,  aided  in  every  way  in  my  power  the  efforts  to  con- 
struct and  operate  a  system  of  low-fare  railroads  in  this  city.  I 
have  in  the  past  a  number  of  times  when  requested  become  liable 
as  surety  in  bonds  and  guaranteed  the  payment  of  obligations  of 
the  Forest  City  Railway  Company,  but  the  net  result  is  that 
while  I  have  in  the  past  stood  to  lose  if  the  enterprise  failed,  I 
never  have  and  never  will  reap  any  financial  benefit  from  its 
success.  I  believe  that  it  will  succeed  and  that  the  people  who 
ride  on  street  cars  will  benefit  from  reduced  fares  and  that  those 
who  invest  money  in  the  low-fare  road  will  reap  fair  dividends 
and  profits  from  the  venture.  To  my  mind  this  is  not  a  philan- 
thropic enterprise,  but  rather  a  plain  and  sound  business  proposi- 
tion. I  believe  that  publicity  and  the  high  personal  integrity  of 
the  directors  of  the  Municipal  Traction  Company  will  guarantee 
the  carrying  out  of  the  plans  set  forth  in  absolute  fairness  to  the 
public  and  to  the  stockholders  of  the  Forest  City  Railway  Com- 
pany. Secrecy  and  over-capitalization  are  two  cardinal  vices  of 
the  modern  public  service  corporation.  Neither  of  these  can  have 
any  place  in  this  plan.  With  the  utmost  regard  for  all  the  rights 
of  existing  companies,  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  to  further  the 
success  of  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company  and  the  Municipal 
Traction  Company,  but  my  interest  shall  not  be. of  a  pecuniary 
nature.  In  lending  such  aid  and  encouragement  I  feel  that  I 
shall  be  doing  no  more  than  I  have  promised  the  people  of  Cleve- 
land. For  five  years  a  struggle  has  been  waged  in  Cleveland  to 


PERSONAL  LIABILITY  SUIT  235 

secure  reasonable  fares.  In  all  that  time  I  have,  as  mayor,  and 
as  a  citizen,  waged  no  unfair  war  on  any  private  interest.  This 
enterprise  shall  have  my  hearty  support  and  I  confidently  invite 
the  support  of  the  public,  both  as  citizens  and  as  investors.  The 
grants  to  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company  will  establish  street 
railroad  facilities  where  they  are  very  much  needed,  and  will,  on 
a  capitalization  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  mile,  in  my  judgment, 
produce  a  net  revenue  of  more  than  fourteen  per  cent,  on  the 
actual  capital  invested.  The  Cleveland  Electric  is  earning  eight 
per  cent,  net  on  a  capitalization  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  a  mile.  This  would  mean,  if  capitalized  at  actual  cost, 
between  twenty  and  twenty-four  per  cent.,  so  that  the  estimate 
of  fourteen  per  cent,  net  earnings  is  conservative.  The  city  of 
Cleveland  has  made  the  greatest  growth  in  its  history  in  the 
last  six  or  eight  years,  and  during  all  that  time  the  building  of 
street  railroad  tracks  has  been  almost  at  a  standstill.  Extensions 
equaling  one-third  of  the  present  system  are  now  greatly  needed. 
The  lowering  of  the  fare  will  greatly  stimulate  traffic,  and  make 
more  tracks  and  equipment  necessary.  When  asking  for  grants 
for  extensions,  both  in  new  territory,  and  for  grants  on  streets 
where  franchises  have  or  will  expire,  the  Forest  City  Railway 
Company  is  likely  to  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  city  favorable 
consideration  not  only  because  the  fare  is  lower,  but  because  all 
earnings  above  the  fixed  payment  to  the  investors  are  to  accrue 
indirectly  to  the  benefit  of  the  city.  The  city  shall  provide  in 
all  grants  to  that  company  proper  safeguards,  but  can  afford  to 
be  much  more  liberal  in  making  grants  under  these  circumstances 
than  where  there  is  no  limitation  of  future  profits.  This  plan 
really  secures  to  the  people  of  Cleveland  better  service  and  lower 
fare  and  the  benefit  of  all  future  growth  in  franchise  values  and 
economies  in  the  operation  of  street  railways." 

The    evidence    showed    plainly   that    if    the    low-fare 
project  failed,  I  should  lose  about  four  hundred  thousand 


236  MY  STORY 

dollars,  but  that  in  no  event  could  I  profit  a  penny  by  the 
enterprise.  When  the  court  asked  me  why  I  had  made 
guarantees  to  creditors  and  stockholders,  I  answered : 

"  I'll  tell  you  why.  Some  men  like  to  leave  monu- 
ments behind  them;  some  build  hospitals,  some  libraries. 
Others  build  universities.  I  want  to  see  that  there  is  a 
street  railroad  built  that  will  be  run  in  the  interests  of  the 
people." 


XXII 

FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR 

TWELVE  or  fourteen  miles  of  track  on  the  west  side, 
overhead  construction  and  power-houses  had  been  com- 
pleted and  everything  was  in  readiness  for  operating  the 
line  from  Denison  avenue  to  the  point  of  contention  al- 
ready refeired  to  —  the  six  hundred  feet  on  Detroit  ave- 
nue from  the  intersection  of  Fulton  road  to  the  viaduct. 

Sixteen  months  before  this  Judge  Robert  W.  Tayler 
of  the  United  States  Court  of  the  northern  district  of 
Ohio  had  held  that  the  Concon's  franchise  on  Central  and 
Quincy  avenues  had  expired  on  March  22,  1905.  Coun- 
cil had  therefore-  granted  the  Forest  City  Company  the 
right  to  operate  on  these  two  routes,  and  while  the  city 
could  have  stopped  the  operation  of  the  Concon  cars  it 
permitted  them  to  continue  without  interference.  We 
thought  it  better  to  permit  the  service  at  the  higher  fare 
than  to  deprive  the  car-riders  of  it.  Now,  however,  when 
the  low  fare  lines  got  ready  to  connect  with  Central  ave- 
nue, which  extends  eastward  from  the  Square  and  which 
was  reached  by  free  territory  tracks  in  the  down  town  por- 
tion of  the  city,  more  injunctions  were  forthcoming. 
Workmen  were  promptly  prevented  from  tearing  up 
Brownell,  now  Fourteenth  street,  preparatory  to  laying 
the  tracks  for  the  connection,  and  at  about  the  same  time, 
John  W.  Warrington  of  Cincinnati,  applied  to  the  su- 
preme court  of  the  United  States  to  prevent  the  city  of 

237 


238  MY  STORY 

Cleveland  from  interfering  with  the  Cleveland  Electric 
Street  Railway  Company's  operations  on  Central  and 
Quincy  avenues  and  Erie  street.  Warrington  was  ac- 
credited with  being  one  of  the  chief  influences  in  having 
secured  from  the  supreme  court  of  Ohio  a  reversal  of 
that  court's  decision  in  the  case  of  the  Rogers  law.  Un- 
der this  law  the  Cincinnati  Traction  Company  held  a 
fifty-year  franchise  on  all  the  street  railways  in  Cincin- 
nati. The  supreme  court  declared  the  law  unconstitu- 
tional. Then  Warrington  and  his  associates  took  it  up 
and  secured  a  reversal  of  this  decision.  He  was  said 
to  have  been  one  of  the  principal  movers  also  in  the 
framing  of  the  municipal  code,  so  our  city's  affairs  were 
not  wholly  unfamiliar  to  him. 

While  all  this  was  transpiring  in  the  last  days  of  Oc- 
tober the  cars  of  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company  were 
on  their  way  from  the  factory  in  the  east  to  Cleveland, 
and  on  November  i,  1906,  the  first  three-cent-fare  car 
made  its  first  trip  from  Denison  avenue  to  Detroit  avenue 
over  the  unenjoined  part  of  the  road.  By  common  con- 
sent I  was  the  motorman.  City  officials  and  other  friends 
of  the  municipal  ownership  movement  were  the  passen- 
gers on  that  initial  run,  but  the  company  rules  were  en- 
forced and  every  passenger  paid  his  fare.  It  was  just 
five  years  and  six  months  to  a  day  since  I  had  been  elected 
mayor  the  first  time,  and  at  last  part  of  our  dream  had 
come  true  —  not  that  I  had  ever  doubted  that  it  would ! 
but  it  was  good  to  feel  that  we  had  really  gotten  some- 
where finally. 

It  was  a  sunshiny  day  and  the  brightness  of  the  day 
seemed  to  be  reflected  in  the  faces  of  the  men,  women  and 
children  who  crowded  around  us  at  the  car-barns  and  lined 


"By  common  consent  I  was  the  motorman. 


Photot  hy  L.  Van  Orvfn 


First  three-cent  tare  car — November  I,    1906 


FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR        239 

the  streets  all  along  the  route.  They  had  even  decorated 
their  houses,  some  of  them,  with  flags  and  bunting  as  if  it 
were  a  holiday,  and  here  and  there  women  on  the  streets 
threw  bunches  of  fall  flowers  from  their  own  little  gardens 
towards  the  big  new  yellow  car  as  it  passed.  A  com- 
mittee of  women,  I  remember,  brought  a  big  floral  piece 
to  me  at  the  car-house  and  said  they  wanted  to  thank  us 
for  getting  the  three-cent  fare  for  them.  That  was  the 
best  of  it  —  it  was  a  people's  victory  —  a  victory  for 
women  and  children  as  well  as  for  men,  and  they  all  knew 
it.  I  don't  know,  of  course,  but  I  think  I  was  the  hap- 
piest person  in  the  whole  crowd,  and  I  guess  I  looked 
it,  for  one  of  the  newspapers  said  that  my  smile  expanded 
and  broadened  until  it  eclipsed  everything  behind  it  in 
the  three-cent  car. 

With  the  operation  of  the  first  three-cent-fare  car  the 
stock  of  the  Cleveland  Electric  Railway  Company  went 
down  to  sixty-three. 

I  confidently  believed  that  the  injunction  on  Detroit 
avenue  would  be  dissolved  in  a  few  days  and  that  the  low- 
fare  cars  would  run  over  into  the  center  of  the  city  with- 
out further  obstruction,  but  I  was  too  hopeful.  Shortly 
after  the  line  was  put  into  operation  I  went  out  of  town  on 
business,  to  Chicago  if  I  remember  rightly,  as  that  city 
was  in  the  midst  of  its  traction  war  then  and  Mayor 
Dunne  and  I  exchanged  several  visits.  When  I  got  back 
Mr.  du  Pont,  president  and  operating  manager  of  the 
Municipal  Traction  Company,  met  me  at  the  station  with 
the  somewhat  disheartening  news  that  the  injunction  still 
held,  but  immediately  followed  it  up  with  the  startling 
suggestion  to  "  jump  the  viaduct."  We  had  been  in  a 
good  many  tight  places  together  in  the  course  of  street 


24o  MY  STORY 

railway  operations  in  other  cities  and  we  agreed  that 
physically  this  feat  could  be  accomplished,  but  whether  it 
could  be  done  legally  neither  of  us  knew.  After  nearly 
a  whole  day's  conference  with  his  lawyers  they  gave  their 
sanction  to  Mr.  du  Font's  plan,  I  believe  because  they  saw 
he  was  going  to  do  it  anyway.  The  next  day,  under  his 
personal  direction,  in  the  midst  of  an  interested  crowd  in 
which  the  Concon  attorneys  figured  conspicuously,  a  For- 
est City  car  was  derailed  at  "  injunction  point,"  as  Secre- 
tary Colver  humorously  dubbed  the  place  where  the  low- 
fare  cars  were  forced  to  stop.  By  the  use  of  horses, 
jacks,  a  gang  of  men  and  the  municipal's  own  current  (for 
du  Pont  was  careful  not  to  use  any  of  the  Cleveland  Elec- 
tric's  power),  the  car  was  pushed,  bumped,  lifted,  carried 
along  somehow,  and  at  last  safely  landed  on  the  tracks 
on  the  viaduct  and  others  soon  followed. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  I  said  in  the  beginning  of 
this  story  that  it  was  the  city's  ownership  of  those  tracks 
on  the  viaduct  that  gave  the  community  its  chief  strength 
in  the  struggle  to  come  years  later.  Low-fare  cars  were 
on  those  tracks  now  where  they  couldn't  be  enjoined. 
That  ancient  expedient  —  a  free  bus  —  was  at  hand  to 
transfer  passengers  from  the  terminal  of  the  Forest  City's 
right  of  way  on  Detroit  avenue  to  the  waiting  cars  at  the 
west  end  of  the  viaduct,  but  it  wasn't  really  needed.  The 
passengers  were  more  than  willing  to  walk  that  six  hun- 
dred feet. 

From  2  :3<D  p.  m.  until  midnight  the  cars  were  operated 
over  the  viaduct  at  intervals  of  five  or  six  minutes.  A 
switch  had  been  put  in  on  the  west  approach  of  the  bridge 
where  the  cars  could  be  stored  when  not  in  use.  Within 
a  few  days  the  three-cent  cars  would  have  been  operating 


FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR        241 

to  the  Public  Square,  but  the  day  after  they  were  gotten 
onto  the  viaduct  the  Threefer  was  met  with  the  most  out- 
rageously unjust  injunction  which  it  had  so  far  encoun- 
tered, and  that  is  putting  it  pretty  strongly.  The  re- 
straining order  affecting  the  strip  on  Detroit  avenue  which 
had  just  been  jumped  was  now  made  to  include  territory 
on  Superior  street  between  the  east  end  of  the  viaduct  and 
the  Public  Square.  This  portion  of  Superior  street  had 
been  free  territory  since  1850.  A  free  territory  clause 
was  contained  in  the  first  franchise  ever  granted  by  the 
city,  the  question  had  twice  been  fought  out  in  the  su- 
preme court  and  both  times  that  body  had  declared  the 
territory  free.  For  any  man  or  set  of  men  to  claim  the 
exclusive  right  to  this  portion  of  street  was  certainly  the 
height  of  arrogant  disregard  of  the  city's  right  to  control 
its  own  streets.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  the  low-fare  cars 
were  now  stopped  at  the  east  terminal  of  the  viaduct.  At 
one  of  the  hearings  one  of  the  Concon's  eminent  attorneys 
made  those  present  gasp  for  breath  when  he  gave  voice  to 
the  remarkable  statement  that,  "  if  the  right  which  we 
claim  is  well  founded,  it  is  our  contention  that  no  one  has 
the  right  to  interfere  with  us  in  the  operation  of  cars  even 
to  the  extent  of  running  a  'bus  line." 

The  court  granted  the  restraining  order  on  the  ground 
"  that  the  ordinance  of  the  city  council  fixing  the  com- 
pensation for  the  joint  use  of  the  tracks  by  the  defendants 
was  invalid  because  of  the  admitted  financial  interest  of 
Mayor  Johnson  in  the  defendant  company."  This  de- 
cision came  just  at  Christmas  time  in  1906. 

The  night  of  December  26  the  Forest  City  Company 
attempted  to  lay  temporary  tracks  on  top  of  the  pave- 
ment on  Superior  street,  N.  W.  If  it  had  succeeded  the 


242  MY  STORY 

three-cent  cars  would  have  been  running  to  the  Square  by 
seven  o'clock  the  next  morning.  The  low-fare  people 
believed  the  Concon  could  not  enjoin  them  from  laying 
these  tracks,  but  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  an  in- 
junction was  served  at  the  instigation  of  a  property  owner, 
who  was  also  a  Concon  stockholder.  There  was  nothing 
to  do  but  to  stop  the  work.  A  day  or  two  later,  by  per- 
mission of  the  court,  the  Forest  City  people  removed  their 
wagons,  tools  and  equipment  from  the  street  awaiting  the 
action  of  the  court  on  the  temporary  restraining  order. 
On  January  2,  1907,  Judge  Beacom  ruled  that  the  Forest 
City  Company  had  no  right  to  construct  separate  tracks 
on  Superior  avenue.  The  company  promised  to  remove 
its  temporary  tracks  immediately  and  at  once  put  that 
promise  into  execution.  On  that  same  day  Judge  Ford 
issued  injunction  No.  32  against  the  Low  Fare  Company 
stopping  the  laying  of  tracks  at  Sumner  avenue,  S.  E. 
The  Low  Fare  Company  had  a  franchise  from  the  council 
for  tracks  on  Sumner  avenue  and  on  New  Year's  day  had 
put  a  force  of  one  hundred  laborers  to  work  at  laying 
tracks  on  Sumner  avenue  from  East  Fourteenth  to  East 
Ninth  streets.  The  company  already  had  tracks  on  these 
streets  which  it  wished  to  connect  by  the  Sumner  avenue 
route.  Six  hundred  feet  of  track  had  been  laid  when  the 
work  was  stopped  by  Judge  Ford's  injunction,  January  2. 
This  is  the  way  the  holiday  season  was  being  celebrated 
by  the  contending  forces  in  Cleveland. 

But  the  people  were  getting  the  benefit  of  the  contest, 
for  on  December  31,  1906,  the  Concon  commenced  to  sell 
seven  tickets  for  twenty-five  cents.  It  was  now  fighting 
desperately  to  have  all  the  low-fare  grants  declared  void 
on  the  ground  that  I  was  financially  interested  in  them. 


>  to  frr  I..  V\\n  O,  n 


"The  night  of  December  16,   1906,  the  Forest  City  Company  attempted  to  lay 
temporary  tracks  on  top  ot  the  pavement  on  Superior  St.,  N.W." 


FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR        243 

All  of  the  facts  as  to  this  contention  have  already  been 
related  and  the  utter  absurdity  of  the  charge  shown.  It 
isn't  worth  while  to  follow  the  legal  intricacies  of  the 
thing;  and  it  is  anything  but  pleasant  to  recall  the  meth- 
ods employed  to  poison  the  minds  of  the  people,  but  if 
one  purpose  of  the  story  of  our  nine  years'  war  with  priv- 
ilege in  Cleveland  is  to  arm  other  fighters  in  other  fields 
with  courage  to  resist  and  to  endure,  it  would  be  less  than 
fair,  perhaps,  to  say  nothing  on  this  subject.  Under  the 
heading  Street  Railway  Talks  the  Cleveland  Electric 
Street  Railway  Company  was  running  daily  double  col- 
umn reading  matter  in  several  newspapers  purporting  to 
be  educational  propaganda  on  the  local  situation.  No. 
1 20  of  the  "  talks  "  appeared  November  24,  1906,  under 
the  usual  note,  reading: 

"  NOTE  —  Each  day  you  will  hear  something  new  on  the 
street  railway  situation.  Read  it,  and  if  you  disagree  or  care  to 
make  any  suggestions  concerning  it,  we  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from 
you." 

"  THE  CLEVELAND  ELECTRIC  RAILWAY  COMPANY, 
"  By  Horace  E.  Andrews,   President." 

This  is  what  talk  No.  120  said: 

STREET  RAILWAY  TALKS. 

No.  1 20. 

THE  CHICAGO  NEWSPAPERS  are  giving  some  atten- 
tion to  the  Cleveland  branch  of  the  TOM  L.  JOHNSON 
STREET  RAILWAY  TRUST. 

THIS  IS  THE  WAY  IT  LOOKS  to  the  CHICAGO 
JOURNAL :- 

"  Mayor  Dunne  needs  to  be  warned  against  TOM  JOHN- 


244  MY  STORY 

SON,  of  Cleveland,  whom  he  seems  to  regard  as  an  all-wise 
authority  on  traction. 

"JOHNSON  MAKES  FREQUENT  VISITS  TO  CHI- 
CAGO in  the  pose  of  an  adviser  of  Mayor  Dunne,  and  Dunne 
visits  Cleveland  to  absorb  instruction  from  Johnson. 

"  The  association  for  which  Mayor  Dunne  is  responsible,  is 
scandalous  and  disgraceful.  It  should  be  stopped  in  the  interest 
of  MAYOR  DUNNE'S  REPUTATION,  which  IS  BOUND 
TO  SUFFER  FROM  CONTACT  WITH  A  MAYOR 
WHO  DURING  HIS  TERM  OF  OFFICE  HAS  BEEN 
TRYING  TO  OBTAIN  A  TRACTION  ORDINANCE 
FOR  HIMSELF  AND  HIS  FRIENDS  from  the  Cleveland 
City  Council. 

"  We  are  not  familiar  with  the  statutes  of  Ohio,  but  on  general 
principles  we  should  say  that  SUCH  CONDUCT  AS  THAT 
OF  WHICH  MAYOR  JOHNSON  HAS  BEEN  GUILTY 
OUGHT  TO  BE  A  FELONY.  The  mayor  of  any  city  should 
be  that  city's  best  friend  and  counselor.  He  should  be  on  guard 
to  protect  the  community  against  franchise  grabbers.  He  should 
not  use  the  power  of  his  position  to  gain  any  benefits  from  the 
city  for  himself.  WHEN  HE  APPEARS  AS  A  BEGGAR 
FOR  A  FRANCHISE,  HE  SHOULD  BE  INDICTED 
AND  PROSECUTED. 

"  If  found  guilty  he  should  go  to  the  penitentiary  and  stay 
there  long  enough  to  give  him  time  for  repentance. 

"THAT  IS  MAYOR  JOHNSON'S  CONDITION  AT 
THIS  MOMENT,  according  to  general  report. 

"HE  IS  TRYING  TO  INDUCE  THE  CLEVELAND 
CITY  COUNCIL  TO  GIVE  HIM  A  STREET  CAR 
FRANCHISE  with  the  hope,  no  doubt,  that  the  existing  trac- 
tion companies  will  BUY  HIM  OFF  AT  A  LARGE 
FIGURE. 

"  He  knows  as  well  as  other  traction  men  that  A  THREE- 
CENT  FARE  STREET  RAILROAD  IS  AN  IMPOSSIBLE 
PROPOSITION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR         245 

"  He  himself,  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  where  he  was  a 
street  railway  owner,  WOULD  HAVE  NOTHING  TO  DO 
WITH  A  REDUCTION  OF  FARES  TO  THE  THREE- 
CENT  BASIS  for  he  knew  that  with  such  a  reduction  his  com- 
panies would  go  into  bankruptcy. 

"He  knows  that  A  THREE-CENT  FARE  ROAD  IN 
CLEVELAND  WOULD  NOT  BE  A  SUCCESS  as  an  op- 
erating concern,  however  great  might  be  its  success  as  A  CLUB 
FOR  BLACKMAIL  against  existing  companies. 

"  But  the  rate  of  fare  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  right  or 
the  wrong  of  MAYOR  JOHNSON'S  ATTEMPT  TO  EX- 
TORT A  FRANCHISE  from  the  Cleveland  city  council  except 
as  the  three-cent  fare  factor  in  it  shows  how  conscienceless  a  man 
may  be  when  he  is  afflicted  with  the  greed  for  money. 

"THE  POINT  IS  THAT  THE  MAYOR  OF  THE 
CITY  IS  USING  THE  INFLUENCE  WITH  WHICH 
HE  IS  TEMPORARILY  FURNISHED  TO  OBTAIN  A 
CONCESSION  FOR  HIMSELF. 

"  Such  a  man  is  an  evil  counselor  for  Mayor  Dunne,  who 
should  refuse  to  give  ear  to  his  pleadings. 

"  Mayor  Dunne  is  an  honest  man,  but  very  ready  to  listen, 
and  when  he  heeds  an  adviser  as  sharp  and  keen  as  MAYOR 
JOHNSON,  WHO  CAN  MAKE  THE  WORSE  APPEAR 
THE  BETTER  REASON,  he  is  in  danger  of  forfeiting  the 
respect  in  which  he  is  held. 

"  Mayor  Dunne  does  not  think  of  Johnson  as  a  man  guilty 
of  what  ought  to  be  felony,  but  only  as  mayor  of  Cleveland  and 
a  pleasant  person  to  meet.  Doubtless  Johnson,  who  is  master  of 
the  arts  of  persuasion,  uses  that  of  flattery  and  makes  Mayor 
Dunne  believe  himself  to  be  a  great  and  good  man. 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  Mayor  Dunne  should  be  espe- 
cially careful  of  himself  and  hearken  not  to  the  voice  of  THE 
FAT  CASUIST  OF  CLEVELAND. 

"  If  he  listens  long  to  him  he  is  likely  to  do  something  that 
will  cost  him  all  his  friends  and  well-wishers  in  Chicago,  and  in 


246  MY  STORY 

exchange  for  them  gain  nothing  but  the  SNEERING  AP- 
PROVAL OF  MAYOR  JOHNSON,  which  will  be  with- 
drawn the  very  moment  Johnson  has  NO  FURTHER  OCCA- 
SION TO  MAKE  USE  OF  HIM. 

"  Mayor  Dunne  is  no  match  for  Tom  Johnson  in  skill  and 
resources.  He  should  keep  away  from  him,  therefore,  and  pre- 
serve his  dignity  without  risking  the  loss  of  it  at  the  hands  of 
THAT  ADROIT  ADVENTURER." 

This  is  the  kind  of  "  educational  campaign  "  the  Con- 
con  was  conducting  through  paid  advertisements  in  the 
newspapers,  the  Press  alone  declining  to  print  them,  when 
the  "  financial  interest  "  suit  was  on  in  the  courts.  They 
managed  to  bring  the  case  before  a  pliant  judge  and  a 
very  stupid  man  withal,  and  they  got  from  him  the  desired 
decision.  Later,  after  a  full  hearing  before  a  reasonable 
judge,  this  foolish  verdict  was  set  aside,  but  it  had  served 
its  purpose  of  delaying  the  extension  of  the  three-cent 
fare  lines  and  seriously  embarrassing  the  Forest  City  Rail- 
way. 

When  the  Forest  City  Company  found  itself  con- 
fronted with  the  probability  of  having  all  its  grants  de- 
clared invalid  because  of  the  "  personal  interest  "  claim 
they  were  forced  to  decide  quickly  what  move  to  make 
next  in  order  to  retain  the  advantage  the  city  had  so  far 
gained  over  the  old  monopoly  company.  It  was  at  this 
juncture  that  the  Low  Fare  Railway  Company  came  into 
being.  It  was  incorporated  by  W.  B.  Colver  and  others 
and  financed  by  a  man  who  believed  in  our  movement  and 
who  was  not  a  resident  of  Cleveland.  It  started  free 
from  the  claim  of  personal  interest. 

The  Low  Fare  Company  bore  the  same  relation  to  the 


FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR        247 

Municipal  Traction  Company  that  the  Forest  City  did. 
The  low-fare  companies  were  eager  to  push  ahead  and 
extend  their  range  of  operations  eastward  on  Central 
avenue,  but  while  the  question  of  this  franchise  was  in  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  no  move  could  be  made. 
At  the  hearing  before  this  court  the  Concon  was  repre- 
sented by  Judge  Warrington,  already  mentioned,  and  by 
Judge  Sanders  of  Squire,  Sanders  and  Dempsey,  the  Con- 
con's  local  attorneys.  The  interests  of  the  city  and  of  the 
low-fare  line  were  in  the  hands  of  City  Solicitor  Baker 
and  D.  C.  Westenhaver,  who  had  lately  come  to  Cleve- 
land from  West  Virginia  and  become  a  partner  in  the  firm 
of  Howe  &  Westenhaver.  He  did  most  of  the  fighting 
for  the  low-fare  companies.  All  the  big  lawyers,  those 
of  established  reputation,  were  employed  by  the  other 
side  or  so  tied  up  that  they  couldn't  accept  cases  for  the 
three-cent-fare  crowd  —  except  Mr.  Baker,  of  course, 
whose  public  employment  kept  him  on  the  city's  side. 
Privilege  certainly  had  a  powerful  influence  with  some 
judges  and  it  did  its  best  to  monopolize  the  best  legal 
talent  available.  The  odds  against  us  in  the  whole  long 
fight  were  so  great  that  perhaps  we  couldn't  have  gone 
on  as  we  did  year  after  year,  hopefully,  cheerfully  — 
even  getting  a  lot  of  fun  out  of  it,  as  we  certainly  did 
—  if  we  had  been  able  to  look  ahead  and  foresee  the  ob- 
stacles and  count  the  cost.  And  yet  I  think  we  should 
have  gone  on  just  the  same. 

The  Low  Fare  Company  had  been  granted  rights  for 
a  through  route  from  east  to  west  on  East  Fourteenth 
street,  Euclid  avenue,  the  Public  Square,  Superior  avenue, 
the  viaduct,  West  Twenty-eighth  street  and  Detroit  ave- 


248  MY  STORY 

nue.  All  the  low-fare  grants,  both  of  the  Low  Fare 
Company  and  the  Forest  City,  were  made  to  expire  at 
about  the  same  time,  twenty  years  from  the  date  of  the 
original  Forest  City  grant,  September  9,  1923. 

The  New  Year  found  the  city  nearer  three-cent  fare 
than  it  had  been  at  any  time  during  the  six  years  of  the 
fight  and  on  January  7  the  low-fare  people  were  made 
very  happy  by  the  decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Central  avenue  case,  which  confirmed  Judge 
Tayler's  decision  that  the  franchise  of  the  Cleveland  Elec- 
tric Street  Railway  Company  on  Central  avenue,  Quincy 
avenue  and  East  Ninth  street  had  expired  in  1905.  The 
news  came  to  us  in  Judge  Babcock's  court,  where  the 
Sumner  avenue  injunction  suit  was  being  heard.  Mr. 
du  Pont  left  the  court  room  and  hurried  to  the  offices  of 
the  Cleveland  Electric,  where  he  found  two  or  three  of 
the  company's  directors  who  had  not  yet  heard  of  the  de- 
cision. Several  other  directors  came  in  before  he  left  and 
he  proposed  that  an  agreement  be  effected  whereby  the  in- 
junction against  the  Forest  City  on  Detroit  avenue  be  held 
in  abeyance,  the  low-fare  people  on  the  other  hand  doing 
nothing  to  interfere  with  the  Cleveland  Electric's  cars  on 
Central  avenue,  which  were  to  be  operated  at  a  three-cent 
fare.  If  either  side  wished  to  terminate  this  agreement 
twenty-four  hours'  notice  was  to  be  given. 

The  Sumner  avenue  grant  to  the  Low  Fare  Company 
was  declared  legal  on  January  9,  so  the  people  won  an- 
other important  victory. 

Cleveland  Electric  stock  went  down  to  sixty  after  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  decision  in  the  Central  ave- 
nue case,  and  immediately  thereafter  the  old  company 
came  to  the  council  seeking  some  kind  of  a  settlement. 


Photo  by  L.  Van  Ocycn 

Tom  L.  Johnson  entering  voting  booth,  November  7,   1906 


FIRST  THREE-CENT  FARE  CAR        249 

Somehow  all  the  disagreeable  litigation  didn't  seem  to 
prejudice  the  car-riders,  for  the  low-fare  lines  were  ex- 
ceedingly popular  from  the  very  start  —  much  too  popu- 
lar for  the  comfort  of  the  old  company  in  spite  of  every- 
thing that  had  been  done  to  make  the  project  fail. 


XXIII 

AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR 

THE  New  Year  (1907)  found  the  city  in  a  stronger 
position  than  it  had  been  at  any  time  since  the  beginning 
of  the  fight.  Immediately  after  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  decision  in  the  Central  avenue  case,  the  Mu- 
nicipal Traction  Company  and  the  Cleveland  Electric  en- 
tered into  a  thirty-day  truce,  each  side  agreeing  not  to 
resort  to  litigation  while  the  truce  was  operative,  the 
Concon  to  be  permitted  to  run  without  interruption  on  Cen- 
tral and  Quincy  avenues  and  the  Threefer  to  be  unmo- 
lested in  operating  from  its  western  terminal  up  to  and 
around  the  Public  Square. 

On  the  twelfth  day  of  January,  then,  the  first  three- 
cent-fare  car  ran  to  the  Public  Square.  It  had  taken  two 
and  a  half  years  to  get  the  grant  for  that  car  to  run  to  the 
Square,  and  nearly  four  and  a  half  years  from  the  time 
the  grant  was  made  for  it  to  wade  its  way  through  in- 
junctions to  that  point.  This  shows  Privilege's  power 
to  delay  anything  which  is  against  its  interest,  and  illus- 
trates the  persistence  of  our  movement  to  hold  on  under 
all  difficulties.  The  agreement  permitting  the  opening  of 
the  line  to  the  Square  was  carried  out  as  soon  as  it  was 
made,  and  before  the  public  had  a  chance  to  be  informed 
of  it.  The  appearance  of  three-cent  cars  on  the  East 
side  of  the  viaduct  was  a  signal  for  enthusiastic  demonstra- 
tions by  pedestrians  and  car  riders.  Women  waved  their 

250 


a. 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  251 

handkerchiefs  towards  it  as  if  it  were  a  personal  friend 
and  ever  so  many  humorous  incidents  occurred  on  the 
cars.  Everybody  seemed  happy  and  friendly  and  every- 
thing seemed  to  point  to  a  peaceful  settlement  and  a  speedy 
victory. 

Enough  has  been  told  in  detail  to  show  how  the  fight 
was  waged.  It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  each  of  the  low- 
fare  companies  in  the  matter  of  the  grants  made  to  them, 
nor  into  the  courts  to  trace  the  trail  of  each  injunction. 
The  people  of  Cleveland  had  been  patient,  law-abiding 
and  long-suffering  to  a  remarkable  degree,  and  when  the 
old  company  and  the  Municipal  Traction  Company,  pur- 
suant to  the  request  of  the  former  and  a  resolution  of  the 
city  council,  commenced  to  negotiate  a  settlement  there 
was  general  satisfaction. 

Before  the  truce  was  six  days  old  it  developed  that  the 
Concon  was  violating  it  by  going  after  property  owners' 
consents  and  revocations  on  Rhodes  and  Denison  avenues, 
but  when  President  du  Pont  called  the  attention  of  Presi- 
dent Andrews  to  this  the  latter  ordered  all  consent  opera- 
tions stopped.  It  was  hoped  that  settlement  would  come 
by  means  of  the  holding  company  plan  —  that  the  Cleve- 
land Electric  would  lease  its  lines  to  the  Municipal  Trac- 
tion Company,  which  was  in  position  to  take  them  over 
at  a  just  rental  value  and  to  continue  the  operation  of  all 
cars  in  the  interest  of  the  community.  These  negotiations 
were  conducted  by  Presidents  Andrews  and  du  Pont. 
They  continued  through  January,  through  February  and 
on  until  late  in  March.  Every  few  days  the  newspapers 
would  announce  that  a  final  settlement  was  about  to  be 
reached,  and  then  again  that  negotiations  had  been  broken 
off.  At  last  on  March  25  each  side  presented  a  statement 


252  MY  STORY 

to  the  city  council.  They  had  been  unable  to  agree  upon 
the  valuation  of  the  Cleveland  Electric  property.  The 
figures  presented  were  as  follows: 


ANDREWS  S   VALUATION. 


Total  physical  and  franchise  values $30,500,000.00 

Added    one-ninth,    per    agreement 3,388,888.88 


Grand  total    $33,88 

Funded   and  unfunded   debt  deducted 9,341,000.00 


Net   valuation $24,547,888.88 

Stock  value,  per  share,  this  valuation 105.00 


DU  PONT  S   VALUATION. 


Total  physical  and  franchise  value $17,908,314.24 

Added   one-ninth,    per    agreement 1,989,812.69 


Grand  total    $19,898,126.93 

Outstanding   stock,    per   share 45. 10 

Redeemable  on   suggested   plan 49.6 1 

Far  apart  as  these  figures  were  I  did  not  feel  that  they 
precluded  a  settlement.  One  of  the  daily  newspapers 
asked  me  to  sum  up  the  situation  and  this  is  what  I  said : 

"  You  ask  me  to  sum  up  for  you  the  street  railway  situation 
as  it  exists  to-day. 

To  begin  with  let  us  eliminate  one  or  two  things  that  may 
be  in  the  public  mind  through  misapprehension. 

Mr.  Andrews  has  not  offered  to  lease  his  road  on  a  basis  of 
$105  per  share. 

Mr.  du  Pont  has  not  offered  to  lease  on  a  basis  of  $49.61. 

Mr.  Andrews  has  said  that  he  can  figure  out  a  value  of  $105 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  253 

per  share,  but  we  are  not  informed  what  are  the  factors  or  proc- 
esses in  his  calculation. 

Mr.  du  Pont  says  that  he  can  figure  out  $49.61  per  share, 
and  that  that  figure  is  a  cold,  hard  trading  figure,  containing 
only  about  21  per  cent,  good  will  or  bonus-for-peace  factor.  Let 
du  Pont  tell  how  he  arrived  at  his  figures. 

The  situation  to-day  then  is:  How  far  ought  Andrews  to 
come  down,  and  how  far  ought  du  Pont  to  come  up  ? 

If  each  man  will  give  his  processes  as  to  each  disputed  item, 
these  disputes  ought  to  be  settled  singly  and  without  great  trou- 
ble. That  is  what  the  council  is  now  trying  to  get  at.  Progress 
along  such  lines  means  progress  toward  a  complete,  satisfactory 
and  comprehensive  settlement.  I  believe  that  the  Cleveland 
Electric  Railway  Company,  as  well  as  others  concerned,  desire 
such  a  settlement. 

Now  let  us  proceed  carefully,  without  undue  delay,  and  also 
without  undue  haste.  The  public  interest  —  for  the  first  time  in 
years  —  is  not  suffering  by  reasonable  delay.  We  have  lowered 
fares  all  over  the  city,  and  each  of  the  two  companies,  one  a  public 
one  and  one  a  private  one,  is  vying  with  the  other  to  earn  and 
keep  public  favor.  So  there  is  no  public  clamor  for  a  settlement 
to  be  marred  by  haste,  though  we  all  agree  that  not  a  minute  of 
unnecessary  delay  should  be  tolerated.  The  sooner  the  three- 
cent  rate  comes  to  everybody  the  better. 

There  is  one  danger  just  now.  It  will  be  to  the  advantage 
of  certain  interests  to  start  a  hullaballoo  over  some  side  issue  so 
that  the  main  point  may  be  obscured.  This  is  the  old  tactics 
and  we  can  expect  it  again.  This  time  the  side  issue  will  be 
as  to  rates  of  fare  in  the  suburbs.  Let  us  meet  that,  settle  it 
and  dispose  of  it  so  that  we  can  give  our  undivided  attention  to 
the  main  question. 

First,  ninety  people  ride  in  the  city  to  every  ten  outside. 

Second,  the  people  of  Cleveland  and  their  council  are  not  the 
guardians  of  the  suburbs. 

Third,  the  suburbs,  in  times  past,  nearly  all  of  them,  against 


254  MY  STORY 

advice  and  protest,  have,  through  their  councils,  made  long-time 
grants  to  the  Cleveland  Electric  railway. 

Fourth,  each  dollar  of  revenue  cut  off  from  a  long-time  sub- 
urban grant  must  be  made  up  in  added  generosity  in  grants  by 
the  city  of  Cleveland. 

Now,  then,  this  is  what  I  propose,  that  three-cent  fare  in 
Cleveland  for  the  benefit  of  the  ninety  must  not  be  imperiled  for 
the  sake  of  the  ten  who  have  bargained  and  granted  away  their 
chances  to  make  contracts  for  themselves. 

If  the  suburban  people  made  twenty-five  year  contracts  they 
are  bound  just  as  the  people  and  council  of  Cleveland  are  bound 
by  existing  franchise  grants. 

But  the  suburban  people  must  be  treated  just  as  generously 
and  fairly  as  possible.  I  should  not  expect  to  charge  five  cents 
if  service  could  be  rendered  in  a  given  suburb  for  four  cents.  I 
would  not  charge  four  if  the  service  could  be  given  at  three  or 
three  and  a  half. 

Let  us  have  three-cent  fare  and  universal  transfers  in  the  city, 
and,  with  open  books,  agree  to  serve  each  suburb  at  exact  cost 
of  service.  Take  this  in  its  broadest  sense  when  I  say  "  at  cost." 
Let  all  the  profit  be  made  in  the  city  at  the  three-cent  fare,  and 
simply  charge  the  fare  in  the  suburbs  that  will  meet  actual  cost 
of  operation  and  interest  on  physical  property.  Figure  it  just  as 
closely  as  possible  and  have  the  books  open  to  the  people  and 
officials  of  each  suburb,  so  that  they  may  know  they  are  getting 
their  service  at  cost  —  and  that  is  relatively  even  cheaper  than 
the  cost  to  the  people  of  Cleveland  themselves.  I  think  no  honest 
man  could  ask  more.  Let  us  proceed  to  seek  a  fair,  equitable 
settlement  and  let  us  not  be  sidetracked  on  a  ten  per  cent,  ques- 
tion, so  as  to  lose  sight  of  the  ninety  per  cent,  question. 

As  to  arbitration:  I  believe  that  is  just  what  is  going  on  now. 
The  council  is  now  sitting  as  a  board  of  arbitration,  seeking  to 
learn  what  the  exact  differences  are  between  Mr.  du  Pont  and 
Mr.  Andrews.  If  each  of  these  men  will  be  frank  and  free  to 
explain  his  figures  and  processes,  their  differences  will  be  brought 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  255 

out  so  plainly  that  adjustment  will  not  be  difficult.     I  think  the 
arbitration  now  in  progress  will  meet  all  needs." 

All  street  railroad  conferences  had  been  public  for  a 
long  time  and  these  were  generally  well  attended.  When 
any  new  question  came  up  there  was  always  an  increased 
attendance,  and  the  council  meetings  following  the  report 
just  referred  to  were  in  effect  town  meetings. 

The  special  street  railway  committee  of  council  pre- 
sented a  report  recommending  the  holding  company  plan 
on  a  basis  of  sixty  dollars  a  share  for  Concon  stock,  which 
report  was  adopted  by  council,  April  2,  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-nine  to  one.  On  April  4  the  Plain  Dealer  an- 
nounced in  large  head  lines,  "  Directors  of  Cleveland 
Electric  Will  Accept  Offer  of  Council  if  Three-Cent  Fare 
is  Assured,"  and  said: 

"  The  directors  of  the  Cleveland  Electric  Railway  Company, 
at  a  meeting  at  the  Union  Club  yesterday  afternoon,  adopted  a 
resolution  covering  all  the  points  to  be  made  in  the  reply  of  the 
company  to  the  council  offer  of  sixty  dollars  per  share  for  Cleve- 
land Electric  stock  on  the  holding  company  basis. 

The  communication  is  to  be  drawn  up  to-day  and  submitted 
to  the  board  for  final  approval  at  another  meeting.  .  .  . 
The  communication  will  then  be  ready  for  council  and  it  is 
expected  that  a  special  meeting  will  be  called  for  Friday,  when 
the  reply  of  the  company  will  be  formally  submitted.  President 
Andrews  refused  to  discuss  the  nature  of  the  resolution  .  .  . 
but  on  authority  of  a  leading  interest  in  the  company  it  is  stated 
that  the  reply  will  be  an  acceptance  of  the  holding  plan  at  the 
figure  offered  by  the  council  committee.  The  acceptance  will  be 
in  the  form  of  a  challenge  to  the  mayor,  and  in  such  form  that 
if  the  city  accepts,  it  must  either  make  good  on  the  proposal  to 
operate  for  three-cent  fare  within  the  city  limits,  and  five-cent 


256  MY  STORY 

fare  outside,  or  the  property  will  revert  to  the  Cleveland  Electric 
shareholders  under  a  seven-for-a-quarter  twenty-five  year  fran- 
chise." 

Council  met  on  Friday  morning  to  receive  the  Com- 
pany's reply.  In  the  meantime,  on  April  2,  Mayor 
Dunne  had  been  defeated  for  re-election  in  Chicago  and 
his  municipal  ownership  programme  turned  down.  How 
much  influence  this  had  on  the  action  of  the  directors  of 
the  Cleveland  Electric  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is  certain 
that  it  gave  them  hope  that  what  had  been  accomplished 
in  Chicago  might  be  accomplished  in  Cleveland.  The 
whole  community  was  interested  in  the  negotiations  and 
the  lobby  of  the  council  chamber  was  crowded  with  eager 
spectators.  I  was  presiding  and  called  the  meeting  to 
order.  City  Solicitor  Baker  and  City  Clerk  Witt  sat 
back  of  me.  President  Andrews  and  his  directors,  most 
of  whom  were  present,  sat  at  my  left.  Back  of  these 
were  the  councilmen  at  their  desks  and  back  of  the  rail 
and  crowding  the  gallery  as  many  citizens  as  could 
squeeze  in. 

The  Cleveland  Electric's  communication  was  handed 
to  the  city  clerk  to  read,  Secretary  Davies  of  the  Concon 
holding  a  copy  of  the  statement  and  following  it  closely 
to  see  that  the  clerk  read  it  correctly.  A  hasty  glance 
over  the  document  showed  Witt  its  character.  If,  actu- 
ated by  the  bitterest  hatred,  he  had  drawn  up  that  state- 
ment himself  he  could  scarcely  have  read  it  more  effect- 
ively. It  was  not  only  a  refusal  of  the  city's  propo- 
sition and  notice  that  the  seven  tickets  for  a  quarter  were 
to  be  immediately  withdrawn  and  the  old  five-cent  fare  re- 
established, but  a  most  insulting  attack  on  the  mayor,  the 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  257 

city  council,  and  the  friends  and  promoters  of  the  low- 
fare  movement.  As  Witt  read  on,  page  after  page  of 
the  document,  which  made  more  than  a  page  of  newspaper 
copy  when  in  type,  he  fairly  "  acted  out  "  the  insinuations, 
the  cruel  charges,  the  arrogant  assumptions  of  the  sign- 
ers of  that  statement.  He  was  getting  angrier  every  min- 
ute, but  kept  himself  well  in  hand,  and  when  he  had  fin- 
ished I  asked  the  pleasure  of  the  council.  A  member 
moved  that  the  statement  be  received  and  time  given  to 
consider  it.  I  said  that  the  communication  was  a  flat  re- 
fusal to  accept  the  proposition,  referred  to  the  charges 
against  the  mayor  and  the  council,  saying  that  we  should 
be  able  to  take  care  of  these,  and  concluded  by  saying, 
"  This  question  will  not  be  settled  by  personal  attacks,  but 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people,"  and  asked  if  others  wished 
to  talk.  Peter  Witt  was  demanding  the  floor,  as  a  citi- 
zen, but  Mr.  Baker  spoke  first.  He  said  in  part: 

"  I  am  speaking  under  strong  feeling.  It  is  not  unusual  for 
public  officials  to  be  insulted,  yet  it  is  not  often  that  the  board 
of  directors  of  the  greatest  corporation  in  the  city  lends  its  pres- 
ence to  sanction  the  reading  of  a  studied  insult.  ...  I  want 
to  say  that  the  persecution  has  not  been  on  the  part  of  city  officers. 
This  company  has  bought  dozens  of  houses  and  lots  on  streets 
to  prevent  the  getting  of  consents  by  the  low-fare  company,  not 
to  protect  Concon  rights  but  to  foster  monopoly.  I  challenge 
anyone  to  show  that  this  administration  ever  tried  to  take  away 
one  right  of  the  Concon.  All  the  obstructions,  all  the  injunc- 
tions have  come  from  the  company.  I  cite  one  instance :  For 
two  years  after  the  Central  avenue  franchise  expired  they  enjoyed 
the  use  of  the  streets.  For  your  disgruntled  acts  I  have  only 
toleration.  Your  charges  of  persecution  I  throw  back  at  you. 
You  are  the  persecutors." 


25 8  MY  STORY 

Mr.  Baker's  restraint,  in  spite  of  his  emotion,  my  own 
calmness  —  for  all  through  the  reading  of  the  Concon's 
statement  I  had  the  feeling  that  the  things  it  said  might 
be  about  a  man  from  Kamchatka  or  some  place  equally 
remote,  they  didn't  mean  me  —  only  added  fuel  to  the 
flaming  wrath  of  Peter  Witt.  By  unanimous  vote  he  was 
given  the  floor  and  as  he  rose,  he  turned  to  me  and  said, 
"  Tom,  I  have  deferred  to  your  wish  and  your  judgment 
on  many  occasions,  but  this  morning  I'm  going  to  have 
my  say.  They  are  all  here  and  I'm  going  to  give  it  to 
them.  If  you  don't  like  it,  you  can  go  to  hell." 

And  then  —  and  then  —  well  I  suppose  it  is  a  safe 
assertion  that  no  similar  body  of  distinguished  gentlemen 
and  leading  business  men  was  ever  treated  to  such  a  scor- 
ing as  those  men  got  that  day.  Witt  not  only  denounced 
the  policy  and  methods  of  the  railway  company,  charging 
that  in  the  past  it  had  bribed  councilmen,  corrupted  legis- 
lators, used  dishonest  judges,  and  for  months  had  the 
City  Hall  watched  by  a  private  detective,  but  one  by  one 
he  called  the  men  present  by  name  and  shaking  his  finger 
at  them  declared  the  responsibility  of  each  for  the  par- 
ticular things  of  which  he  held  that  man  to  be  guilty. 
By  this  time  the  lobby  was  ready  to  roar  its  approval 
of  Witt's  speech  but  was  restrained  by  the  desire  to  hear 
every  word  he  uttered.  The  incident,  dramatic,  almost 
terrible  in  some  of  its  aspects,  was  not  without  its  funny 
side.  When  Witt  assailed  the  first  man,  by  name  for 
instance,  hurling  out  his,  "  You, ,"  and  point- 
ing his  finger  at  him,  the  gentleman  thus  accosted  was 
so  surprised  that  he  slid  down  in  his  chair  and  doubled 
up  as  if  he  had  suddenly  received  a  stinging  blow  on  top 
of  his  head. 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  259 

Nobody,  either  then  or  afterwards,  ever  attempted  to 
reply  to  that  speech  of  Peter  Witt.  He  closed  by  say- 
ing, "  To  grant  your  company  a  renewal  of  franchises 
would  be  to  capitalize  your  past  corruption  that  future 
generations  might  pay  tribute  thereon.  You  will  never 
get  a  franchise  renewal.  Whether  Tom  Johnson  be  here 
as  mayor  or  not,  with  the  present  temper  of  the  people 
you  will  never  be  able  to  obtain  another  concession  at  the 
hands  of  this  council.  Public  opinion  will  prevent  it." 

Directly  after  the  close  of  the  meeting  the  Concon 
stopped  selling  seven  tickets  for  a  quarter  and  went 
back  to  the  five-cent  cash  fare  or  eleven  tickets  for  fifty 
cents. 

These  happenings  occurred  on  Friday.  Almost  im- 
mediately the  Cleveland  Press  addressed  a  letter  to  Presi- 
dent Andrews  and  to  me,  asking  us  each  to  answer  a 
question.  The  question  put  to  me  was  whether  I  would  rec- 
ommend to  the  council  that  a  guarantee  of  three-cent  fare 
inside  the  city  be  included  in  the  lease  of  the  Cleveland 
Electric  Railway,  as  proposed  by  Mr.  Andrews.  My 
answer  was,  "  Yes,"  and  it  was  published  on  Monday. 
The  question  put  to  Mr.  Andrews  was  whether  if  the 
city  followed  his  suggestion  and  incorporated  the  three- 
cent  fare  guarantee  he  would  lease  his  company  on  the 
holding  plan  at  sixty  dollars  per  share.  His  answer  was, 
"  No,"  and  it  was  published  on  Wednesday. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  April  Horace  Andrews  sent  a  com- 
munication to  council  saying  that  unless  a  purchaser  ap- 
proved by  council  took  over  the  tracks  and  equipment  of 
the  Central  and  Quincy  avenue  lines  before  midnight  on 
April  23,  the  company  would  proceed  to  tear  up  the 
tracks.  This  was  a  complete  surprise  and  a  week's  time 


260  MY  STORY 

was,  of  course,  very  short  in  which  to  handle  so  important 
a  matter,  but  a  council  meeting  was  immediately  called 
for  ten  a.  m.,  April  16,  and  the  Cleveland  Railway  Com- 
pany requested  to  attend  by  an  accredited  delegate  who 
should  inform  the  council  what  the  property  it  desired 
to  sell  consisted  of,  and  what  it  considered  a  fair  value 
for  same.  President  Andrews's  astounding  reply  to  the 
council's  communication  sent  in  response  to  his  own  letter 
was  as  follows: 

"  Replying  to  your  request  that  we  inform  you  as  to  what 
the  property  is  that  we  are  willing  to  dispose  of  in  Central  and 
Quincy  avenues  and  what  we  consider  its  fair  value,  we  beg 
to  say  that  which  we  are  willing  to  sell  is  the  investment  of  this 
company  in  these  streets.  The  question  of  its  fair  value  we  will 
take  up  with  a  proposed  purchaser  who  makes  a  bona-fide  appli- 
cation and  gives  reasonable  assurance  of  his  ability  to  purchase. 
As  the  city  can,  in  no  event,  be  a  purchaser,  we  cannot  see  the 
propriety  of  taking  up  the  negotiation  for  a  sale  of  this  property 
with  the  city  council." 

Could  anything  better  illustrate  the  company's  total 
disregard  of  the  public  interest  than  this  communication? 
Were  the  people  who  daily  used  the  lines  in  question, 
who  were  dependent  upon  them  for  service,  not  to  be 
considered  at  all?  Was  it  no  part  of  the  province  of  a 
city  government  to  assist  in  maintaining  car  service  on 
streets  which  had  not  been  without  it  for  forty  years? 
Was  this  then  a  simple  matter  of  buying  and  selling  be- 
tween private  individuals,  or  between  corporations  which 
were  unmindful  of  the  patrons  who  made  their  very  ex- 
istence possible? 

Mr.  du  Pont  promptly  sought  an  interview  with  Mr. 
Andrews.  How  satisfactory  it  was  may  be  judged  by 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  261 

the  following  extracts  from  his  (du  Font's),  letter  to  the 
Cleveland  Electric  Directors: 

"  The  council  at  your  request  approved  the  Forest  City  Rail- 
way Company,  as  such  purchaser  and  granted  you  permission  to 
remove  your  property  as  requested  in  the  event  of  a  disagreement. 

I,  as  the  representative  of  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company, 
met  Mr.  Andrews,  your  representative,  this  afternoon  to  discuss 
the  questions  of  property  and  price  under  the  terms  of  your 
communication  of  April  15  to  the  council.  Mr.  Andrews,  how- 
ever, at  once  departed  from  the  terms  of  that  offer,  and  insisted 
upon  an  assurance  of  the  ability  of  the  Forest  City  Railway  Com- 
pany to  pay  an  unnamed  price  for  an  unknown  property. 

He  vaguely  expressed  the  willingness  of  your  company  to  sell 
to  the  Forest  City  Railway  Company  property.  He  declined  to 
negotiate  as  to  price  or  even  roughly  to  indicate  what  property 
was  represented  by  your  investment  in  Central  and  Quincy 
avenues  until  you  should  be  satisfied  of  the  financial  ability  of 
the  Forest  City  Railway  Company  to  pay. 

I  asked  what  form  the  assurance  should  take  in  order  to  satisfy 
you,  but  he  declined  to  make  any  suggestion  as  to  the  form, 
amount  or  character  of  the  assurance.  In  order  that  an  attempt 
might  be  made  to  comply  with  this  new  and  exceedingly  indefi- 
nite condition  I  asked  Mr.  Andrews  to  say,  not  specifically  or  in 
dollars  and  cents  but  in  a  general  way  what  items  of  property 
were  to  be  sold,  but  he  declined  even  roughly  to  indicate  what 
property  he  had  in  mind  or  whether  it  included  cars,  carhouses, 
tracks,  poles,  and  wires  or  any  of  them.  I  next  asked  Mr. 
Andrews  to  state  a  sum  of  money  and  guarantee  of  ability  to 
pay  which  would  be  satisfactory  to  your  board,  but  he  declined 
to  name  any  sum. 

From  the  foregoing  it  appears  that  while  your  company  has 
told  the  council  of  the  city  of  Cleveland  that  it  is  willing  to  sell 
its  investment  in  certain  streets  to  a  purchaser  to  be  approved  by 
the  council,  and  the  council  has  approved  a  purchaser,  yet  you 


262  MY  STORY 

decline  to  advise  that  purchaser  either  what  the  investment  in- 
cludes or  what  it  is  worth  so  that  he  may  satisfy  the  requirement 
that  you  now  make  as  to  an  assurance  that  the  cash  price  will  be 
paid." 

Mr.  du  Pont  then  offered  to  buy  tracks,  poles,  trolley, 
span  and  feed  wires  in  place  on  certain  streets  for  the 
sum  of  $149,993.19  cash,  to  be  paid  April  23  at  twelve 
o'clock  at  the  Citizens  Savings  &  Trust  Company,  upon 
delivery  of  a  good  negotiable  title  and  a  promise  not  to 
interfere  with  the  operation  of  the  road.  The  Concon 
rejected  du  Font's  offer,  naming  $448,473  as  its  price, 
also  giving  no  assurance  that  it  would  continue  to  respect 
the  peace  pact  and  not  stop  the  operation  of  the  Threefer 
to  the  Public  Square.  And  so  the  war  was  on  again, 
and  presently  the  good  old  never-failing  injunction  re- 
appeared. 

The  old  company  directly  served  notice  on  the  Forest 
City  that  its  operations  from  Fulton  road,  N.  W.,  to  and 
around  the  Public  Square  must  cease,  while  the  Low 
Fare  Company  was  enjoined  from  operating  cars  on  Eu- 
clid avenue  between  East  Fourteenth  and  East  Ninth 
streets.  The  Forest  City  cars  continued  their  operations 
twenty-four  hours  after  notice  had  been  served,  the  peace 
pact  having  provided  for  a  twenty-four  hour  notice  to 
quit.  At  the  end  of  the  twenty-four  hours  the  Forest 
City  cars  stopped  running,  but  the  service  was  not  inter- 
rupted, the  privilege  of  operating  having  been  transferred 
to  the  Low  Fare  Company  which  had  not  yet  been  en- 
joined on  this  route,  and  which  proceeded  to  operate  its 
cars  here.  At  one  point  the  Forest  City  was  ordered  to 
remove  a  section  of  its  track.  Workmen  proceeded  to 
tear  up  the  rails  to  the  evident  satisfaction  of  the  old 


AFTER  SIX  YEARS  OF  WAR  263 

company's  representatives  who  were  on  the  spot  to  see 
that  the  order  was  carried  out.  A  messenger  was  sent 
scurrying  over  to  the  Cleveland  Electric  offices  to  report 
that  it  was  all  right,  the  tracks  were  coming  up.  When 
the  bearer  of  these  glad  tidings  got  back  to  the  scene  of 
action  he  rubbed  his  eyes  and  wondered  whether  he  was 
asleep  or  awake,  for  the  tracks  instead  of  coming  up 
were  going  down.  As  soon  .as  the  Forest  City  rails 
were  removed  the  track  was  replaced  by  the  Low  Fare 
Company  with  rails  of  its  own.  The  whole  thing  was 
accomplished  in  about  two  hours.  That  was  once  when 
the  injunction  mill  didn't  grind  fast  enough. 

At  midnight  on  April  23,  the  Cleveland  Electric  dis- 
continued its  operations  on  Central  and  Quincy  avenues, 
and  both  low-fare  companies  were  enjoined  from  oper- 
ating on  the  abandoned  lines.  This  dog-in-the-manger 
policy  could  have  but  one  effect  in  any  enlightened  com- 
munity and  I  used  to  marvel  at  the  short-sightedness  of 
Privilege  in  so  flagrantly  violating  all  democratic  tradi- 
tions. 


XXIV 

THE   BURTON-JOHNSON   CAMPAIGN 

AT  about  this  time  I  appealed  to  the  people  of  the  com- 
munity to  support  the  low-fare  movement  by  subscribing 
to  its  stock.  The  banks  of  the  city  were  far  from  friendly 
towards  the  enterprise  and  it  was  becoming  increasingly 
difficult  to  get  any  help  from  them.  It  was  evident  that 
if  this  people's  project  was  to  succeed  it  must  be  financed 
by  men  and  women  of  moderate  means  who  believed  in 
the  movement  and  wanted  it  to  win.  The  moneyed  peo- 
ple were  against  it,  particularly  of  course  those  who 
owned  stock  in  the  old  company.  Our  fight  was  the  more 
difficult  because  it  was  directed  against  a  company  owned 
by  resident  stockholders.  It  would  probably  have  lacked 
some  of  the  bitter  personal  features  if  the  Cleveland 
Electric  had  been  owned  by  outside  stockholders.  The 
Concon  added  two  local  bankers  to  its  board  of  directors 
at  this  juncture.  Public  subscriptions  were  opened  for 
low-fare  stock  making  it  more  attractive  than  a  savings- 
bank  deposit,  the  purchaser  having  the  privilege  of  sur- 
rendering his  stock  at  will  and  getting  back  his  money 
plus  six  per  cent,  for  the  time  it  was  invested.  This 
bothered  the  banks  a  great  deal  for  men  and  women  were 
purchasing  the  stock  and  paying  for  it  with  their  savings 
bank  deposits.  It  wasn't  an  uncommon  thing  for  bank- 
ers to  try  to  dissuade  their  depositors  from  such  a  "  fool- 
ish investment,"  but  in  spite  of  this  money  came  in  rap- 

264 


THE  BURTON-JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN     265 

idly  —  sometimes  as  high  as  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars in  a  single  day.  This  novel  plan  of  raising  money 
had  many  advantages,  but  the  savings  banks  were  the 
losers,  and  they  fought  desperately  to  discredit  it. 

With  the  beginning  of  operations  on  the  three-cent 
line  it  was  suggested  that  a  bank  and  trust  company  be 
established  in  the  interests  of  the  low-fare  people  and  the 
necessity  for  this  was  apparent.  In  order  to  give  them  a 
trust  company  in  sympathy  with  our  movement  the  De- 
positors Savings  &  Trust  Company  was  organized.  The 
presidency  was  offered  to  a  good  many  young  bankers 
all  of  whom  declined  it  because  they  feared  that  con- 
nection with  it  would  cut  off  their  careers  with  larger 
institutions.  Many  of  them  had  their  pay  raised  lest 
the  offer  of  the  presidency  should  tempt  them  to  leave 
their  present  jobs.  I  was  then  importuned  to  take  the 
presidency.  I  accepted  it  most  reluctantly,  for  I  thought 
it  .a  mistake  at  the  time  and  I  still  think  my  taking  it  was 
an  unfortunate  blunder.  It  put  me  in  a  position  which  gave 
my  enemies  a  new  point  of  attack.  From  first  to  last  this 
enterprise  gave  me  only  care  and  anxiety.  When,  largely 
on  account  of  business  transactions  outside  the  city  and 
connected  chiefly  with  my  brother's  estate,  I  became  finan- 
cially embarrassed,  I  called  the  directors  together  and 
advised  the  giving  up  of  the  bank.  A  great  many  of 
the  local  banks  were  unfriendly  to  the  Depositors  Sav- 
ings &  Trust  Company,  but  a  few  of  them  acted  very 
nicely  indeed.  The  bank's  affairs  were  wound  up  with 
some  loss  to  all  the  stockholders,  the  heaviest  loss  being 
mine,  because  I  was  the  largest  stockholder.  The  de- 
positors never  lost  a  penny  nor  were  they  delayed  a  second 
in  getting  their  money. 


266  MY  STORY 

On  the  first  of  May  (1907)  the  Concon  commenced 
to  tear  up  its  tracks  on  Central  avenue  and  continued, 
with  more  or  less  interruption,  until  that  work  was  com- 
pleted. The  Low  Fare  Company  which  now  had  a  grant 
on  this  street  was  enjoined  from  proceeding  with  the  lay- 
ing of  its  tracks.  And  so  it  went  on  day  after  day.  In- 
junction followed  injunction.  Property  owners'  consents 
continued  to  complicate  matters.  The  courts  held  that 
it  was  not  bribery  to  buy  consents,  and  some  property 
owners  signed  for  and  against  as  many  as  five  times.  This 
decision  really  amounted  to  putting  up  legislation  to  the 
highest  bidder,  for  the  party  who  could  pay  the  most  to 
property  owners  for  consents  was  the  only  one  to  whom 
council  could  make  a  valid  grant.  New  lawsuits  raising 
new  points  of  law  followed  one  another  so  quickly  that 
for  a  while  I  spent  more  time  in  the  Court  House  than 
I  did  in  the  City  Hall.  At  least  in  one  case  a  judge  who 
had  been  nominated  by  our  particular  friends  was  won 
away  by  the  influence  of  the  Union  Club. 

During  this  summer  the  exposure  of  the  Concon's  "  yel- 
low dog  "  fund  was  made.  From  the  company's  own 
books  and  vouchers  it  was  shown  that  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  which  had  been  spent  in  fighting  three- 
cent  fare  had  been  charged  to  operating  expenses  —  that 
is,  to  the  cost  of  carrying  passengers.  Real  estate  pur- 
chases made  to  control  consents,  exorbitant  legal  fees, 
useless  newspaper  advertisements  and  other  expenditures 
which  would,  perhaps,  have  borne  scrutiny  even  less  well 
were  charged  to  operation. 

When  public  service  corporations  spend  money  to  de- 
feat the  people's  interests  the  cost  must  eventually  come 
out  of  the  people  themselves  in  added  cost  of  service. 


THE  BURTON-JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN     267 

Just  as  the  people's  money  in  savings  banks  is  so  fre- 
quently used  in  the  perpetuation  of  Privilege,  so  too  is 
it  used  by  the  public  service  monopolies.  It  is  the  people 
who  use  the  commodities  the  public  service  corporations 
have  to  sell  who  furnish  the  money  for  "  jack  pots,"  for 
"  yellow  dog  "  funds,  for  the  funds  under  whatever  name, 
that  are  used  to  preserve  and  safeguard  the  power  of 
Privilege. 

It  was  a  summer  of  continual  and  bitter  strife.  I  did 
not  go  out  of  town  at  all  except  for  an  occasional  few 
days  at  a  time.  I  announced  early  that  I  was  a  candi- 
date for  reelection  —  in  fact  that  I  should  continue  to  be 
a  candidate  for  mayor  at  each  recurring  election  until  I 
was  defeated.  The  most  determined  opposition  that  I 
had  so  far  encountered  began  to  crystallize  into  a  great 
movement  to  defeat  me.  The  fight  was  now  so  intense 
that  many  people  who  had  never  been  active  before  began 
to  take  sides.  The  banks,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
the  leading  business  men,  all  the  privileged  crowd  were  a 
unit  against  me  and  were  exerting  themselves  to  find  a 
Republican  candidate  who  could  defeat  me. 

They  selected  Theodore  Burton,  now  United  States 
Senator,  then  member  of  Congress  from  the  Cleveland 
district.  Mr.  Burton  was  serving  his  seventh  term  in 
Congress  and  had  been  twice  returned  without  opposition. 
His  political  position  was  considered  as  strong  as  his 
personal  reputation  was  high.  Mr.  Burton  didn't  want 
to  be  a  candidate.  He  had  no  ambition  for  municipal 
politics.  He  didn't  like  the  affiliation  between  his  party 
and  the  traction  ring.  But  the  pressure  was  great  and 
the  newspapers  said  that  President  Roosevelt  and  cabinet 
secretaries  Taft  and  Garfield  joined  with  the  local  Repub- 


268  MY  STORY 

lican  leaders  in  an  effort  to  persuade  him  that  he  was 
called  upon  to  sacrifice  his  seat  in  Congress  in  order  to  save 
the  fair  name  of  his  city.  He  yielded  and  in  announcing 
his  willingness  to  accept  the  nomination,  said  in  a  public 
statement : 

"  I  will  accept  the  nomination  for  mayor  of  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land provided  assurance  is  given : 

1.  That  the  platform  of  the  party  and  those  who  are  to  be 
its  candidates  will  clearly  show  the  absence  of  any  alliance  or 
affiliation  with  any  public  service  corporation,  street  railway  or 
other,  and  that  the  problem  of  the  relations  of  the  municipality 
to  these  companies  can,  under  my  leadership,  be  settled  by  the 
officials    elected    with    supreme    regard    to    the    interests    of    the 
people. 

2.  That  the  delegates   in   the  convention   next  Saturday  will 
cooperate  with   me   in   nominating  a   good   representative   ticket. 
In  this  connection  I  desire  to  express  myself  with  reference  to 
the  caucuses   next   Thursday.     There   is   an   unusual    degree   of 
competition  in  many  wards  for  the  selection  of  councilmen  and 
delegates.     I  sincerely  hope  the  respective  contests  will  be  con- 
ducted with  decorum  and  with  no  semblance  anywhere  of  dis- 
honor or  fraud. 

It  is  my  understanding  that  others  whose  names  have  been 
mentioned  for  the  mayoralty  nomination  have  kindly  consented 
to  waive  their  claims  in  case  my  name  is  presented  to  the  Repub- 
lican Convention. 

I  make  this  statement  with  a  profound  appreciation  of  the 
friendliness  which  has  been  displayed  for  me  by  petitions,  letters 
and  in  other  ways,  and  with  a  feeling  that  the  step  which  I  am 
taking  is  a  duty.  I  have  received  letters  from  President  Roose- 
velt and  Secretary  Taft  and  have  talked  with  Secretary  Garfield, 
whose  opinions  have  aided  me  in  reaching  a  decision.  At  an 
early  date  the  views  of  each  of  them  may  be  made  public." 


THE  BURTON-JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN     269 

Mr.  Burton  was  nominated  September  7,  and  the  only 
part  of  his  platform  that  it  is  necessary  to  consider  here 
was  the  plank  which  dealt  with  the  street  railway  question 
and  read  as  follows : 

"  A  settlement  of  the  traction  question  at  a  rate  of  fare  to 
be  left  to  the  determination  of  Mr.  Burton  on  a  basis  which  shall 
in  no  event  be  less  favorable  to  the  city  than  seven  tickets  for  a 
quarter  without  zone  restrictions,  with  universal  transfers  and 
sufficient  cars  and  upon  a  grant  to  be  limited  to  twenty  years 
and  conditioned  upon  a  readjustment  of  rates  of  fares  at  the 
expiration  of  ten  years,  and  subject  to  the  right  of  the  city  to 
purchase  the  property  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  at  a  price  to  be 
fixed  by  arbitration,  the  grant  to  provide  also  for  securing  the 
principle  of  but  one  system  and  one  fare." 

It  was  in  this  campaign  that  we  nominated  E.  B. 
Haserodt,  Republican  councilman,  at  the  Democratic  pri- 
maries after  he  had  failed  of  nomination  by  his  own 
party.  His  defeat  in  the  Republican  primaries  was  his 
punishment  for  having  voted  with  the  administration  on 
street  railway  matters.  So  we  nominated  and  elected  him 
on  the  Democratic  ticket. 

The  Democratic  Convention  was  held  September 
21  and  besides  myself  the  other  candidates  nominated 
were  C.  W.  Lapp  for  vice  mayor,  Carl  H.  Nau  for  treas- 
urer, Mr.  Baker  for  solicitor,  Springborn,  Leslie  and 
Cooley  for  board  of  public  service.  From  the  conven- 
tion hall  I  sent  a  letter  by  messenger  to  Mr.  Burton  in- 
viting him  to  engage  in  a  series  of  joint  debates.  The 
first  big  campaign  lie  was  already  in  circulation.  Some- 
body had  told  somebody  who  had  told  somebody  else 
who  had  told  Burton  that  a  certain  man  had  been  coerced 


270  MY  STORY 

into  supporting  the  administration  by  the  arbitrary  refusal 
of  a  building  permit.  We  sifted  this  story  to  the  very 
bottom,  proved  that  it  wasn't  true  in  a  single  particular, 
presented  the  proofs  to  Mr.  Burton  and  his  managers 
but  never  got  a  retraction  from  them.  It  wasn't  a  very 
auspicious  beginning  for  a  dignified  campaign. 

Mr.  Burton  refused  to  meet  me  in  debate  proposing 
instead  that  we  fight  out  the  issues  through  the  columns 
of  the  daily  press.  Of  course  there  was  nothing  for  us 
to  do  but  to  accept  this  substitute. 

Never  perhaps  was  there  a  campaign  anywhere  in 
which  the  community  as  a  whole  took  such  an  interest  and 
in  which  such  intense  personal  feeling  was  manifested. 

Privilege  was  fighting  with  its  back  to  the  wall  now 
and  stopped  at  nothing  in  the  way  of  abuse  or  persecu- 
tion, not  of  me  only  but  of  the  men  associated  with  me. 
At  their  clubs  our  boys  were  treated  with  such  open  con- 
tempt, such  obvious  insult  that  many  of  them  felt  they 
could  not  endure  it  and  stayed  away  altogether.  They 
were  cut  on  the  street  by  men  they  had  known  for  years. 
They  were  made  to  feel  like  aliens  in  their  own  city. 
And  this  treatment  didn't  stop  with  the  men.  It  was 
extended  to  their  wives  and  children.  To  be  "  for  John- 
son "  was  the  cardinal  social  sin  and  society  proceeded  to 
mete  out  its  punishment  of  ostracism.  Everywhere  the 
campaign  was  the  town  talk.  In  banks  and  factories,  in 
offices  and  stores,  on  the  cars,  in  the  homes,  in  the  schools. 
Women  talked  it  to  their  domestics,  to  the  butcher,  the 
baker  and  the  candlestick  maker,  to  the  clerks  in  the 
stores,  to  their  dressmakers  and  their  milliners.  Even 
little  children  in  the  public  schools  engaged  in  the  con- 
troversy. While  the  issues  were  being  thus  fought  out 


THE  BURTON- JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN     271 

among  the  people  in  personal  ways  public  meetings  were 
being  held  nightly  attended  by  vast  throngs. 

Mr.  Burton  very  early  exhibited  a  surprising  ignorance 
of  local  affairs.  None  of  us  had  suspected  that  he  was 
really  so  little  informed  on  the  questions  at  issue.  Now 
the  electorate  of  Cleveland  had  had  a  lot  of  education 
on  many  civic  questions  and  on  the  street  railway  problem 
in  particular.  They  commenced  to  ask  Burton  questions 
which  he  couldn't  answer.  They  heckled  him  so  merci- 
lessly that  we  were  in  daily  dread  of  the  reaction  which 
would  probably  result  from  this.  The  opposition  news- 
papers persistently  played  up  this  feature  of  the  campaign 
by  reporting  that  it  was  "  Johnson  hoodlums  "  who  dis- 
turbed the  Burton  meetings.  Many  people  no  doubt  be- 
lieved that  our  side  was  responsible  for  these  disturbances 
but  it  wasn't  true.  The  trouble  was  that  Mr.  Burton 
was  trying  to  discuss  matters  which  were  strange  and  un- 
familiar to  him  with  men  and  women  who  knew  all  about 
them,  and  when  they  asked  him  questions  he  didn't  tell 
them  he  couldn't  answer,  but  tried  to  make  believe  that 
he  could  answer  if  he  would,  but  that  for  some  reason 
known  only  to  himself  he  preferred  not  to  do  so.  It 
wasn't  unusual  for  him  to  promise  at  the  beginning  of  a 
meeting  to  answer  questions  at  its  close,  and  then  when 
he  finished  speaking  to  put  on  his  coat  and  in  the  midst 
of  a  burst  of  music  from  the  band  hurry  off  to  another 
meeting  without  giving  a  chance  for  questions.  He 
couldn't  fool  those  people.  He  complained  that  he 
couldn't  keep  order  in  his  meetings.  I  sent  him  word 
that  I  would  send  the  whole  police  force  to  take  care  of 
his  meetings  if  he  liked,  or  I  would  agree  to  come  myself 
alone  and  guarantee  to  preserve  order. 


272  MY  STORY 

The  Cleveland  Leader  sent  for  Homer  Davenport,  the 
celebrated  cartoonist,  and  for  weeks  his  cartoons  appeared 
daily  in  that  paper.  Davenport's  wonderful  drawings 
had  been  a  large  factor  in  defeating  the  Cox  crowd  in 
Cincinnati  at  a  previous  election,  and  in  other  cities  his 
services  had  been  found  invaluable  in  similar  contests. 
Davenport  hadn't  much  heart  for  his  task.  He  came 
to  see  me  and  explained  the  nature  of  his  connection  with 
the  Leader  —  as  I  remember  it,  his  time  was  sold  to  the 
Leader  by  an  Eastern  paper  to  which  he  was  under  con- 
tract. At  any  rate  he  appeared  greatly  relieved  when 
I  told  him  that  I  appreciated  his  position  and  wouldn't 
bear  him  any  personal  grudge.  "  Go  ahead  and  do  your 
best  for  the  Leader''  I  said  to  him,  "  I'll  forgive  you." 
"  Well,  my  father  never  will,"  he  answered,  "  I  don't 
know  how  I  am  going  to  square  this  with  him."  His 
father  like  himself  had  for  years  been  a  single  taxer. 

And  so  the  fight  went  on.  The  Republicans  were 
sure  they  were  going  to  win.  They  had  all  the  money 
they  wanted  and  they  brought  out  brass  bands  and  worked 
all  the  old-fashioned  mechanical  effects  for  all  they  were 
worth.  Everything  of  this  description  had  long  been 
eliminated  from  our  campaigns.  They  neglected  no  pos- 
sible point  of  vantage  in  their  efforts  to  influence  people 
against  our  side  and  succeeded  so  well  that  it  amounted 
almost  to  public  disgrace  for  a  business  man  to  admit 
that  he  was  for  me.  Everything  that  offered  the  slightest 
chance  for  attack  was  attacked.  Cruel  and  malicious 
stories  were  circulated  about  Mr.  Cooley's  administration 
of  his  department.  As  fast  as  the  enemy  launched  one 
of  these  unspeakable  falsehoods  we  set  about  running  it 
down. 


THE  BURTON-JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN     273 

Never  before  or  since  was  the  contest  as  bitter  as  in 
that  campaign.  But  it  had  its  humorous  aspects  too. 
Each  campaign  had  its  own  particular  slogan  or  catch 
phrase.  In  my  first  race  for  mayor  my  opponent 
W.  J.  Akers  made  frequent  reference  in  his  speeches  to 
picking  strawberries  in  Newburg  when  he  was  a  boy. 
Harvey  D.  Goulder  who  ran  against  me  in  the  second 
campaign  spoke  with  feeling  of  the  old  town  pump.  Wil- 
liam H.  Boyd  had  something  to  say  of  "  forging  thunder- 
bolts "  to  my  undoing.  And  so  in  their  turn  we  had 
rung  the  changes  on  picking  strawberries  in  Newburg, 
on  drinking  at  the  old  town  pump,  and  on  the  forging 
of  thunderbolts,  but  Mr.  Burton  furnished  us  with  the 
most  delightful  phrase  of  all.  In  accepting  his  nomina- 
tion he  declared  in  classic  Latin,  "  Jacta  est  alaej"  for  Mr. 
Burton  is  a  scholar.  This  expression,  unfortunately  for 
him,  sent  the  man  on  the  street  into  convulsions  of  mirth. 
One  or  two  of  our  speakers  paraphrased  it  in  German  and 
French,  and  I  interpreted  it  for  the  Irish  as  "  Let  'er  go 
Gallagher." 

Then  Mr.  Burton  had  an  impressive  way  of  beginning 
a  speech  by  saying, 

"  I  have  spoken  within  the  halls  of  Parliament  in  London, 
and  in  the  Crystal  Palace  also  in  London,  in  Berlin,  Germany, 
and  with  what  poor  French  I  could  command  in  the  south  of 
France,  in  Brest,  and  once  my  voice  was  heard  within  the  con- 
fines of  the  Arctic  Circle,  in  the  valley  of  the  Yukon,  Alaska, 
but  kind  friends,  I  am  glad  to  be  here  with  you  to-night." 

On  the  heels  of  this  address  Peter  Witt  arose  in  one 
of  our  tents  and  began  his  nightly  speech  with  great 
solemnity, 


274  MY  STORY 

"  I  have  spoken  in  the  corn  fields  of  Ashtabula,  in  the  stone 
quarries  of  Berea  and  at  the  town  hall  in  Chardon,  etc.,  etc." 

There  had  been  fifty-five  injunctions  against  the  low- 
fare  companies  now.  Three  times  I  had  been  elected 
on  the  same  platform.  The  people  had  shown  clearly 
by  their  votes  that  they  wanted  what  we  were  standing 
for  and  the  fifty-five  injunctions  indicated  how  hard  the 
Cleveland  Electric  and  its  allied  interests  had  tried  to 
thwart  their  will.  Would  the  people  give  up  the  fight 
now?  Would  they  be  fooled  by  Privilege? 

I  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  nine  thousand  while  the 
city  solicitor  and  the  members  of  the  board  of  public 
service  were  returned  by  majorities  of  several  thousand 
more.  It  was  a  tremendous  vindication  coming  as  it  did 
at  the  close  of  such  a  campaign.  The  east  end,  the 
rich  and  aristocratic  section  of  the  city  voted  solidly 
against  me  but  contributed  somewhat  no  doubt  to  the 
majorities  of  the  candidates  who  ran  ahead  of  me. 

The  newspapers  were  all  agreed  that  the  election  was 
one  of  the  most  orderly  ever  held  in  Cleveland.  That 
night  the  streets  were  a  surging  mass  of  humanity.  The 
whole  town  seemed  to  be  out.  While  some  thousands 
were  receiving  election  returns  in  the  Armory  and  in  the 
theaters,  tens  of  thousands  were  swarming  on  the  streets. 
They  overflowed  the  sidewalks  and  spread  out  over  the 
streets  in  such  numbers  that  the  street  cars  had  to  crawl 
at  snail's  pace  in  the  down  town  region,  and  automobiles 
had  difficulty  in  getting  through  at  all.  It  was  unmis- 
takably a  great  common  people's  victory.  The  City 
Hall  was  packed  with  a  happy,  radiant  crowd  and  Peter 


THE  BURTON-JOHNSON  CAMPAIGN     275 

Witt  gave  characteristic  expression  to  his  exuberance  of 
spirit  in  a  telegram  to  President  Roosevelt  reading, 
"  Cleveland  as  usual  went  moral  again.  The  next  time 
you  tell  Theodore  to  run  tell  him  which  way." 

Poor  Mr.  Burton!  He  must  have  been  sadly  disillu- 
sioned and  deeply  wounded.  He  had  nothing  to  say. 
He  hurried  off  to  Washington  or  somewhere  without  send- 
ing me  the  congratulatory  message  which  is  customary  on 
such  occasions. 

On  election  night  when  the  returns  began  to  show  be- 
yond doubt  that  Burton  was  defeated  the  Concon  issued 
orders  to  stop  selling  seven  tickets  for  a  quarter  (this 
rate  of  fare  having  been  in  operation  from  October  2 
to  November  5 ) ,  and  go  back  to  the  old  rate  of  a  five-cent 
cash  fare  or  eleven  tickets  for  fifty  cents. 


XXV 

LAST   DAYS   OF   THE   FIGHT 

THE  election  occurred  November  fifth.  On  the  sev- 
enth I  sent  the  following  letter  to  the  Cleveland  Electric 
Railway  Company: 

"  GENTLEMEN  : 

The  passage  of  various  ordinances  by  the  council  within  the 
past  few  months,  and  the  legislation  necessary  to  complete  some 
of  the  grants  already  made,  indicate  that  the  council  will,  in  the 
near  future,  be  called  upon  to  consider  matters  affecting  the 
general  street  railroad  situation.  The  approaching  expiration  of 
the  franchises  upon  many  of  the  lines  operated  by  your  company 
of  course  requires  early  action  to  provide  for  an  uninterrupted 
continuance  of  public  service. 

These  considerations  lead  me  to  suggest  that  I  call  a  public 
meeting  of  the  present  members  of  the  council  and  the  council- 
men-elect  to  consider  any  suggestions  your  company  may  have 
to  offer  either  to  insure  against  confusion  or  public  inconvenience 
at  the  date  of  your  franchise  expirations,  or  looking  to  a  general 
settlement  of  the  entire  street  railroad  question.  I  shall  be  very 
glad  to  call  such  a  meeting  for  the  council  chamber  at  ten  o'clock 
Saturday  morning,  unless  you  prefer  a  later  date,  in  which  case 
I  shall  be  glad  to  know  your  preference  at  as  early  an  hour 
to-morrow  as  is  convenient,  so  that  the  persons  who  would  at- 
tend such  conference  may  be  informed  in  time. 

I  am  assured  by  members  of  the  council,  and  I  speak  for  them 
and  the  city  administration,  in  saying  that  we  have  a  common 
desire  to  bring  about  a  settlement  of  this  question  which  will  be 

276 


Photo  by  David  E.  Cohen 


At  work  on  Fay  Enter  Fare  Box 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  277 

just  and  equitable  to  your  company  and  upon  terms  that  will 
preserve  fully  the  public  right. 

TOM  L.  JOHNSON,  Mayor" 

President  Andrews  accepted  in  behalf  of  his  company 
and  once  more  we  embarked  on  peace  negotiations.  Lit- 
tle was  done  at  the  Saturday  meeting  but  the  Concon 
announced  it  would  bring  a  proposition  to  council  on  the 
following  Thursday.  It  did  —  a  proposition  to  make 
a  six  months'  trial  of  three-cent  fare  after  a  twenty-five 
year  franchise  had  been  granted.  The  council  rejected 
this  proposition  and  tried  in  vain  at  this  and  future  meet- 
ings to  have  Mr.  Andrews  name  a  price  at  which  his 
company  would  lease  its  property  on  the  holding  company 
plan. 

During  the  election  Concon  stock  had  dropped  to  forty- 
two,  and  later  to  thirty-seven,  and  by  the  middle  of  No- 
vember to  thirty-three  dollars  a  share.  Yet  the  company 
instead  of  meeting  council  in  a  conciliatory  spirit  at  first 
exhibited  all  its  old  time  obstinacy  and  a  good  deal  of  its 
old  time  arrogance.  Realizing  at  last  that  the  city  had 
no  intention  of  giving  up,  the  Concon  selected  F.  H. 
Goff,  a  prominent  attorney  as  well  as  a  good  business 
man,  a  man  of  sterling  qualities  and  one  who  inspired 
confidence,  as  its  representative,  to  arrange  the  details 
of  a  settlement.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  negotiations 
these  characteristics  of  Mr.  Goff  were  generally  under- 
stood and  appreciated  by  the  public.  He  began  by  re- 
fusing all  compensation  for  his  work,  and  a  lawyer  of 
his  standing  would  have  charged  a  private  client  a  fortune 
for  such  service. 

The  council  appointed  me  to  act  in  a  similar  capacity 


27 8  MY  STORY 

for  the  city.  So  the  administration  and  the  council  were 
finally  put  in  the  position  for  the  first  time  of  dealing 
with  a  single  individual  with  power  to  act,  and  whose 
decisions  the  Cleveland  Electric  was  bound  to  accept. 
Lawyers  representing  both  sides  of  the  contest  were  ap- 
pointed to  determine  the  exact  date  of  the  expiration  of 
all  unexpired  franchises,  engineers  to  appraise  trackage  and 
pavement  claims,  operating  managers  to  get  at  the  val- 
uation of  cars,  rolling  stock  and  miscellaneous  equipment, 
and  so  on  through  the  various  classifications  of  the  prop- 
erty. All  valuations  were  made  by  a  committee  of  two 
persons,  and  when  they  failed  to  agree  Mr.  Goff  and 
myself  were  the  arbitrators.  The  principal  points  to  be 
agreed  upon  were  physical  and  franchise  values  of  the 
property,  and  that  the  management  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  a  holding  company  which  should  manage  the 
street  railroad  for  the  benefit  of  the  car  riders. 

For  four  months  the  negotiations  between  Mr.  Goff 
and  the  mayor  were  carried  on  in  public  meetings  held 
almost  daily  in  the  council  chamber.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  Mr.  Goff  recommended  a  valuation  of  sixty-five 
dollars  per  share  on  Cleveland  Electric  stock  and  I  rec- 
ommended a  valuation  of  fifty  dollars  per  share. 

At  about  the  close  of  these  negotiations  the  State  legis- 
lature passed  the  Schmidt  bill  which  provides  that  prop- 
erty owners'  consents  are  no  longer  needed  for  a  new 
street  railway  franchise  on  a  street  where  there  is  already  a 
street  car  line;  that  new  franchises  may  be  given  on  such 
streets  within  one  year  after  street  car  service  has  been 
abandoned  or  within  two  years  prior  to  the  expiration 
of  a  franchise;  that  if  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  voters  peti- 
tion for  an  election  within  thirty  days  after  the  passage 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  279 

of  a  franchise  ordinance,  there  must  be  an  election,  and 
the  ordinance  becomes  invalid  if  a  majority  of  the  votes 
cast  are  against  it. 

If  this  law  had  been  on  the  statutes  when  the  Cleve- 
land Electric's  franchises  expired  on  Central  and  Quincy 
avenues,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  Concon 
to  prevent  the  establishment  of  three-cent  car  service  on 
those  streets  through  the  medium  of  a  consent  war. 

Under  the  Schmidt  law  the  council  was  enabled  to 
grant  to  the  Forest  City  Company  certain  franchises  with- 
out property  owners'  consents,  and  it  also  made  a  grant  to 
the  Neutral  Street  Railway  (another  low  fare  company) 
for  lines  on  Central  and  Quincy  avenues. 

Two  or  three  weeks  previous  to  this  the  stockholders 
of  the  Forest  City  had  had  their  first  meeting  and  I  had 
been  present  by  invitation,  and  had  strongly  advised  them 
to  consent  to  a  consolidation  with  the  Cleveland  Electric 
under  the  name  of  the  Cleveland  Railway  Company.  I 
told  them  that  in  my  opinion  their  company  had  served  its 
purpose,  that  it  had  been  organized  to  get  lower  fares 
for  the  people  of  Cleveland  which  was  now  practically  ac- 
complished, that  the  necessity  for  competition  had  passed 
and  that  the  city's  needs  would  be  best  served  by  one  com- 
pany. 

Mr.  Goff  agreed  to  the  holding  company  plan  and  he 
and  I  soon  got  together  on  a  price  of  fifty-five  dollars 
a  share  for  the  stock.  Council  made  a  security  grant  to 
the  old  company  which  was  to  become  operative  as  a 
grant  only  in  case  the  holding  company  failed  to  pay  the 
stockholders  six  per  cent,  on  the  agreed  value,  and  which 
gave  the  city  the  option  of  buying  the  stock  at  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  dollars  at  any  time.  That  the  fare  was  to 


280  MY  STORY 

be  three  cents  on  the  whole  united  system  goes  without 
saying. 

On  April  27,  1908,  the  Municipal  Traction  Company, 
the  holding  company,  took  charge  of  the  lines,  and  in- 
augurated its  operations  by  running  the  cars  free  for 
that  one  day.  This  free  day  was  meant  to  serve  as  an 
object  lesson  of  their  victory  to  the  people.  Nothing  like 
this  had  been  done  in  any  large  city  before  —  nor  per- 
haps any  place  else  except  in  Johnstown  after  the  flood. 
It  was  like  a  holiday.  Men  and  women  and  children 
rode  and  in  spite  of  the  crowds  not  a  single  accident  hap- 
pened to  mar  the  happiness  of  the  day. 

Threefer  employes  were  getting  a  cent  an  hour  more 
than  Concon  employes  so  the  wages  of  the  latter  were 
immediately  raised  one  cent  per  hour,  and  all  the  men 
were  provided  with  free  uniforms.  This  made  the  max- 
imum pay  twenty-five  cents  per  hour.  Some  of  the  old 
company's  men  showed  a  spirit  of  disloyalty  and  insubor- 
dination immediately  .the  Municipal  Traction  Company 
commenced  its  operations,  and  a  strike  was  early  threat- 
ened. The  labor  union  of  Concon  employes  had,  it 
seems,  a  contract  with  the  old  company  which  promised 
a  wage  increase  of  two  cents  an  hour  providing  the  Con- 
con  got  a  renewal  of  its  franchise.  The  low-fare  em- 
ployes were  also  unionized,  but  their  charter  was  re- 
voked by  the  international  body  on  the  ground  that  some 
of  them  were  stockholders  in  the  company  that  employed 
them.  The  charter  was  revoked  without  notice  to  the 
low-fare  company  which  had  a  contract  with  the  union. 
Mr.  du  Pont  declared  the  entire  willingness  of  the  Muni- 
cipal Traction  Company  to  arbitrate  all  differences  and 
neither  he  nor  I  believed  that  a  strike  would  be  called, 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  281 

but  on  May  16  a  strike  was  called.  It  affected  the  mem- 
bers of  the  old  company's  labor  union  only.  The  ques- 
tions raised  were: 

1.  Whether  the  agreement  between  the  Municipal  and  the  old 
Forest  City  union  had  any  bearing  on  the  agreement  between  the 
Cleveland  Electric  and  the  striking  union. 

2.  Whether  the  international  association  had  the  right  to  revoke 
the  charter  of  a  local  which  had  an  agreement  with  the  railway 
company  without  the  company's  consent. 

3.  Was  the  two-cent-an-hour  agreement  between  the  Cleveland 
Electric  and  the  union  binding  on  the  Municipal  as  lessee  of  the 
Cleveland  Electric? 

Violence  broke  out  at  the  very  outset  of  the  strike, 
cars  were  stoned,  wires  cut  and  dynamite  placed  on  the 
tracks.  The  strike  with  its  accompanying  necessity  of 
operating  the  cars  with  inexperienced  men,  and  the  ex- 
pense occasioned  by  the  destruction  of  property  was  just 
one  of  the  things  resorted  to  to  make  the  operations  of 
the  holding  company  fail.  Unfriendly  newspapers 
abused  the  service,  political  organizations  were  formed 
to  refuse  to  pay  fares  by  giving  conductors  more  work 
than  they  could  do,  these  same  men  organized  clubs  to 
tender  large  bills  in  payment  of  fares  in  order  to  exhaust 
the  conductors'  change.  It  wasn't  men  with  dinner-pails 
who  offered  five  dollar  bills  in  payment  of  three-cent  fare, 
nor  was  it  groups  of  labor  unionists  who  crowded  the 
cars  at  certain  points  and  exerted  themselves  to  make  it 
impossible  for  conductors  to  collect  fares,  and  it  wasn't 
workingmen  either  who  instigated  conductors  to  overlook 
fares  or  persistently  to  refuse  to  collect  them.  But  all 
these  things  were  done  —  these  and  many  more  —  by 


282  MY  STORY 

some  of  the  people  who  were  pledged  to  carry  out  the 
agreement  which  Mr.  Goff  had  made  in  their  behalf. 

In  spite  of  all  past  experiences  with  the  Concon,  we 
were  unprepared  for  these  attacks.  We  thought  a  gen- 
tleman's agreement  meant  a  gentleman's  agreement. 
We  were  mistaken. 

The  Municipal  Traction  Company,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  not  free  from  blame.  Some  bad  moves  must  be 
charged  to  its  account,  but  it  can  never  truthfully  be  said 
that  it  dishonestly  violated  any  agreement  or  maliciously 
refused  to  abide  by  its  contracts.  Its  mistakes  were  those 
of  judgment. 

The  strike  finally  died  by  reason  of  the  weakness  of 
its  own  case.  It  did  not  have  the  support  of  the  labor 
unions  of  the  city  and  strikes  instigated  and  aided  by 
Privilege  are  never  very  useful  to  the  strikers  themselves 
nor  to  the  cause  of  labor. 

Of  course  I  was  blamed  for  everything.  If  the  cars 
were  too  cold  it  was  my  fault,  if  they  were  too  hot  it  was 
my  fault.  If  the  rails  were  slippery  or  a  trolley  pole 
broke  it  was  my  fault.  If  the  cars  were  late,  if  they 
stopped  on  the  wrong  corners,  if  they  were  held  up  at 
railroad  crossings,  if  a  conductor  couldn't  change  a 
twenty-dollar  bill  it  was  my  fault.  It  is  even  said  that  a 
man  who  fell  off  a  car  one  night  exclaimed  as  he  went 
sprawling  on  the  pavement,  "  Damn  Tom  Johnson." 

Finally  a  referendum  petition  was  circulated  just  in 
time  to  become  operative  before  the  end  of  the  thirty-day 
period  following  the  making  of  the  grant.  Republican 
organizations,  business  men's  organizations  and  all  the 
combinations  that  Privilege  could  bring  to  bear  were  en- 
listed against  this  grant.  At  the  referendum  election, 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  283 

October  22,  1908,  the  grant  was  defeated  by  605  votes 
out  of  the  75,893  votes  cast.  The  people,  in  my  opinion, 
made  their  biggest  blunder  in  defeating  this  franchise. 
If  they  had  been  even  half  as  patient  with  the  Municipal 
Traction  Company  as  they  had  been  with  the  Concon  all 
would  have  been  well.  The  defects  in  the  service  of 
which  they  complained,  and  often  justly,  would  have  been 
remedied.  But,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out  the  people 
insist  on  a  higher  degree  of  efficiency  in  a  public  company 
than  they  do  in  a  private  one. 

There  was  a  touch  of  the  irony  of  fate  in  the  defeat 
of  the  franchise.  That  the  referendum  should  be  in- 
voked by  the  very  interests  which  had  always  opposed  it, 
and  that  the  result  of  the  first  election  under  the  law 
should  be  inimical  to  the  people's  movement  was  some- 
thing of  a  blow.  But  people  learn  by  their  mistakes  and 
the  good  effects  that  have  come  and  will  come  from  the 
referendum  will  largely  outweigh  any  temporary  disad- 
vantages. 

One  stipulation  of  the  agreement  between  Mr.  Goff 
and  myself  was  that  should  our  plans  fail  the  property 
which  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Cleveland  Rail- 
way Company  should  be  restored  to  the  original  own- 
ers, that  is  that  the  old  company  should  take  back  the 
Cleveland  Electric  property  and  that  the  original  three- 
cent  lines  should  be  returned  to  the  Forest  City.  The 
old  company  refused  to  comply  with  this  agreement.  In- 
stead it  sought  by  every  means  to  embarrass  the  Municipal 
Traction  Company,  urging  creditors  to  press  claims,  tying 
up  the  funds  of  the  Municipal  in  court  and  finally  succeed- 
ing in  having  receivers  appointed,  though  the  money  tied 
up  was  more  than  sufficient  to  meet  all  obligations  that 


284  MY  STORY 

were  then  due.  The  receivers  took  over  all  the  street 
railroads  in  the  city  and  under  the  direction  of  Judge 
Tayler  who  appointed  them  they  operated  the  property 
from  November  13,  1908,  to  March  i,  1910. 

On  February  i,  1909,  the  fare  on  some  of  the  old  lines 
was  raised  to  five  cents.  Such  a  raise  could  not  be  made  on 
the  low-fare  lines  since  their  franchise  provided  for  three- 
cent  fare.  I  advised  charging  a  penny  for  transfers 
rather  than  raising  the  fare,  but  Judge  Tayler  thought  the 
additional  revenue  thus  provided  wouldn't  be  sufficient 
to  meet  immediate  needs.  The  service  was  far  from 
satisfactory  and  on  February  6  this  very  significant  com- 
ment appeared  in  the  Electric  Traction  Weekly,  a  monop- 
olistic organ : 

"  Altogether  it  is  a  safe  guess  that  the  inconvenience  in  routing 
and  the  heterogeneous  system  of  transfers  and  tickets  will  so 
annoy  the  people  of  Cleveland  that  they  will  force  their  council- 
men  to  over-ride  Mayor  Johnson  and  grant  a  franchise  that  the 
receivers  and  the  Cleveland  Railway  Company  will  accept." 

On  February  27  the  Federal  Court  at  Cleveland,  Judge 
Knappen  of  Michigan,  sitting  in  place  of  Judge  Tayler, 
decided  that  the  franchise  of  the  old  company  on  the 
Woodland  and  West  Side  lines  had  expired  February  10, 
1908.  This  had  been  the  city's  contention  and  on  the 
strength  of  it  a  three-cent-fare  franchise  had  been  granted 
a  year  before.  The  old  interests  insisted  that  the  five- 
cent-fare  franchise  had  been  extended  to  July  i,  1914, 
or  at  least  to  January  26,  1910.  The  receivers  there- 
fore appealed  to  the  court  to  know  whether  they  could 
charge  five  cents  on  these  lines  or  were  restricted  to  three 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  285 

cents  as  the  city  insisted.  Under  the  decision  the  re- 
ceivers had  no  authority  to  charge  a  higher  rate  of  fare 
than  the  city  had  granted  to  the  low-fare  company. 

Judge  Tayler,  Attorney  John  G.  White  and  the  mayor 
were  a  committee  endeavoring  to  find  a  way  to  solve  the 
whole  problem.  Frequent  conferences  were  being  held. 
On  March  26,  Judge  Tayler  addressed  the  city  council, 
saying  in  part: 

"  The  streets  of  a  city  belong  to  the  community,  and  not  to 
anybody  else,  and  cannot  be  acquired  by  anybody  else;  and  as  an 
incident  to  that  proprietary  interest  of  the  community  in  the 
streets,  there  must  be  easy  methods  of  transportation  in  those 
streets,  and  you  cannot  accomplish  their  suitable  transportation 
except  by  the  investment  of  large  sums  of  money,  upon  which, 
in  order  to  obtain  it,  there  must  be  a  fair  return.  Now  there  is 
a  perfectly  simple  proposition,  grounded  on  fundamental  right, 
in  the  people  and  in  the  persons  who  invest  their  money. 

We  have  been  going  along  here  for  a  great  many  years  on  a 
certain  theory  of  giving  franchises  for  the  operation  of  street 
railways  in  communities,  all  based  upon  a  wrong  view  of  the 
rights  of  both  sides;  so  far  as  the  people  are  concerned,  the  giving 
of  a  monopoly  without  suitable  restraint;  and  on  the  other  side 
such  a  condition  of  things  that  the  necessities  of  their  situation, 
the  expiration  of  their  grants  at  some  time  in  the  future,  com- 
pelled them  as  business  men  to  make  the  very  best  bargain  they 
possibly  could,  with  the  result  that  scandal  and  injustice  have 
from  the  beginning  characterized  a  large  number  of  street  rail- 
way enterprises  in  all  of  the  great  communities  of  this  country. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  time  has  now  come,  and  perhaps  it  never 
came  until  now,  when  we  should  reach  a  settlement  on  the  foun- 
dation that  the  public  own  the  streets,  and  that  the  people  who 
furnish  transportation  are  entitled  to  a  fair  return  and  a  sure 


286  MY  STORY 

return,  and  nothing  more  than  that.  What  this  community 
wants  is  an  ordinance  that  will  settle  this  street  railway  trouble 
upon  a  basis  which  will  mean  that  the  people  will  get  good 
service,  and  will  have  to  pay  for  it  not  one  copper  more  than 
it  costs.  There  ought  to  be  no  grave  difficulties  in  the  way. 
An  accommodating  spirit,  a  spirit  accommodating  itself  to  that 
settlement,  anxious  to  bring  about  that  settlement,  on  both  sides 
of  this  controversy,  will  necessarily  result  in  a  settlement  of  this 
controversy,  because  the  differences  can  only  arise  over  details 
which  in  and  of  themselves  are  not  vital  to  the  working  out  of  a 
plan  whereby  this  settlement  can  be  reached. 

Of  course,  we  all  know  that  if  there  is  no  settlement  there 
must  be  what  has  been  called  war.  But  I  have  confidence  in  the 
purpose  and  in  the  ability  of  the  gentlemen  involved  in  these 
negotiations  to  come  to  an  adjustment  along  those  lines.  It  is 
strong  because  it  is  eternally  right.  How  to  express  it  in  your 
legislation  is  for  you  to  say.  But  I  think  that  in  the  city  of 
Cleveland  we  have  left  behind  us  the  day  when  any  fixed  rate 
of  fare  shall  be  said  to  be  the  rate  of  fare  which  the  people  must 
pay.  Any  rate  of  fare  may  be  too  high,  or  any  rate  of  fare  may 
be  too  low.  What  we  are  entitled  to  is  good  service  at  the  cost 
of  service,  whether  it  is  one  cent,  or  two  cents,  or  three  cents,  or 
four  cents.  That  is  the  only  sound  basis  upon  which  a  street  rail- 
way settlement  can  rest." 

On  the  mayor's  suggestion  the  city  solicitor  was  then 
instructed  by  council  to  prepare  three  ordinances  as  fol- 
lows: 

1.  The  Judge  Tayler  plan  providing  for  a  sliding  scale 
of  fares  so  as  to  limit  profits  to  six  per  cent. 

2.  A  three-cent  fare  grant  to  the  Cleveland  City  Rail- 
way, subject  to  its  acceptance. 

3.  A  three-cent  fare  grant  to  the  Forest  City  Company, 
subject  to  its  acceptance. 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  287 

The.  city  solicitor  prepared  the  ordinances  as  directed, 
John  G.  White  preparing  a  counter  ordinance  which  was 
proposed  to  the  council  by  Horace  Andrews.  The  dif- 
ferences in  the  two  ordinances  were,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
largely  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  control  by  the 
city  over  the  street  railway  company.  While  the  public 
conferences  over  the  settlement  proposition  were  being  car- 
ried on,  the  council  to  be  on  the  safe  side  in  case  no  settle- 
ment should  be  reached  had  passed  thirteen  new  street 
railway  ordinances  covering  all  the  territory  over  which 
old  franchises  had  expired  or  would  expire  by  January, 
1910.  On  May  18,  bids  for  new  franchises  on  four 
routes  were  received  by  council  from  two  parties.  The 
Cleveland  Railway  Company  bid  on  all  the  routes  at  five- 
cent  cash  fare  and  free  transfers  with  six  tickets  for 
twenty-five  cents,  but  no  deposit  accompanied  the  bid. 
Herman  Schmidt,  a  prosperous  business  man  and  a  de- 
voted friend  of  our  movement,  bid  on  one  route,  the 
Payne  avenue,  offering  three-cent  fare  and  making  a  de- 
posit of  eighteen  thousand  dollars. 

The  question  of  a  revaluation  of  the  railway  property 
having  come  up,  President  Andrews  insisted  that  all  stock 
should  be  treated  alike,  while  the  mayor  and  the  council 
were  just  as  insistent  that  the  Forest  City  stockholders 
must  neither  profit  nor  lose  by  such  a  revaluation.  The 
people  who  had  purchased  Forest  City  stock  had  rendered 
the  community  a  truly  patriotic  service.  There  was  noth- 
ing speculative  about  this  enterprise,  and  I  was  deter- 
mined to  fight  to  the  last  ditch  rather  than  to  see  their 
interests  placed  in  jeopardy.  It  is  the  greatest  possible 
satisfaction  to  me  that  when  the  receivership  was  termi- 


288  MY  STORY 

nated  they  received  their  back  dividends  in  full  and  have 
been  receiving  them  regularly  ever  since. 

The  warring  between  the  council  and  the  old  interests 
went  on.  A  three-cent  fare  grant  was  made  to  Herman 
Schmidt.  The  Chamber  of  Commerce,  business  men,  the 
newspapers  and  the  Republican  organization  were  against 
the  Schmidt  grant  and  it  was  defeated  by  3,763  votes  at 
a  referendum  election  on  August  3.  Only  68,807  votes 
were  cast  out  of  80,000  expected.  The  people  were  get- 
ting tired  and  being  humbugged  by  special  interests. 

And  the  newspapers  —  every  last  one  of  them  —  were 
joining  in  the  hue  and  cry  of,  "  settle,  settle,  settle,"  which 
was  raised  by  the  representatives  of  Privilege.  If  even 
one  newspaper  had  had  the  courage  to  hold  out  and  to 
stand  by  the  people  to  the  end  the  result  might  have  been 
different.  But  the  influence  of  the  counting-room  is  a 
thing  mightily  to  be  reckoned  with.  Newspapers  at  once 
preach  the  highest  and  practice  the  lowest  morality.  They 
set  up  the  highest  possible  standards  for  everybody  and 
everything  but  themselves.  I  am  not  blaming  them  —  I 
am  simply  stating  a  fact. 

Finally  both  sides  in  the  street  railway  controversy 
agreed  to  leave  to  Judge  Tayler  the  fixing  of  the  physical 
and  franchise  value  of  the  property,  his  judgment  to  be 
final.  Almost  every  other  point  of  the  pending  ordinance 
had  been  agreed  to,  but  a  few  ordinance  questions  were 
arbitrated  by  him. 

After  a  good  many  weeks  of  hearings  in  which  I  repre- 
sented the  city  and  the  railroad  company  was  represented 
by  its  president,  each  side  now  and  then  calling  in  lawyers, 
Judge  Tayler  made  a  slight  reduction  in  the  price  fixed  by 
Mr.  Goff  and  myself,  seeming  to  disregard  all  evidence 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  289 

that  we  had  been  at  such  pains  to  present  to  him  showing 
that  the  Goff-Johnson  valuation  had  been  too  high.  The 
railroad  company  seemed  to  expect  several  millions  in- 
crease, while  I  thought  the  company  received  five  or  six 
millions  more  than  it  should  have  had.  Judge  Tayler  did 
not  itemize  his  findings.  The  ordinance  was  approved 
by  vote  at  a  special  election  called  for  that  purpose. 

Its  greatest  defect  is  that  the  management  is  entrusted 
to  hands  that  have  a  pecuniary  interest  in  its  failure.  They 
can  reap  no  profit  above  six  per  cent,  and  as  the  controlling 
stockholders  have  street  railroad  interests  in  other  cities 
they  would  like  the  three-cent  fare  to  fail  on  account  of 
its  effect  on  these  other  interests.  This  interest  in  failure 
however  does  not  go  to  the  extent  of  permitting  them  to 
earn  less  than  six  per  cent,  on  the  Tayler  valuation  for 
that  loss  would  come  out  of  the  stockholders. 

The  traction  question  was  practically  settled  before  the 
fall  election,  so  taxation  was  the  paramount  issue  in  that 
campaign.  We  directed  our  principal  energies  towards 
securing  the  election  of  our  candidates  for  the  board  of 
quadrennial  appraisers.  This  was  the  first  election  for 
such  appraisers  since  the  enactment  of  the  law  providing 
for  them,  and  although  I  was  defeated  for  mayor  by 
3>733  votes  out  of  a  total  of  80,409,  four  out  of  five  of 
our  candidates  for  appraisers  were  elected,  and  Newton 
D.  Baker  was  returned  as  city  solicitor. 

I  had  been  mayor  for  so  many  years  that  many  people 
had  lost  sight  of  conditions  as  they  existed  before  that 
time.  Thousands  of  young  voters  couldn't  remember  any 
other  mayor,  and  there  was  a  great  deal  of  that  feeling 
which  is  always  manifesting  itself  in  politics,  that  — 
"  Oh,  he's  had  it  long  enough;  let's  have  a  change  "  feel- 


290  MY  STORY 

ing,  and  so  the  wave  of  democracy  receded  and  the  ene- 
mies of  the  things  we  stood  for  were  swept  into  power. 

On  December  18,  1909,  after  election  but  before  I  left 
the  mayor's  chair,  council  passed  and  I  signed  the  ordi- 
nance known  as  the  Tayler  grant  with  the  understanding 
that  the  same  was  to  be  submitted  to  referendum  vote.  I 
felt  most  strongly  that  the  responsibility  for  the  settle- 
ment must  rest  upon  the  people.  At  the  referendum  elec- 
tion held  in  February,  1910,  only  46,504  votes  were  cast, 
27»3°7  f°r  the  ordinance  and  19,197  against  it.  The 
ordinance  provided  for: 

1.  A  franchise  for  twenty-five  years  with  a  maximum  rate  of 
fare  of  four  cents  with  one  cent  for  transfers  or  seven  tickets  for 
a  quarter  with  one  cent  for  transfers,  and  an  immediate  or  initial 
rate  of  fare  of  three  cents  with  one  cent  for  transfers ; 

2.  Profits  limited  to  six  per  cent,  on  actual  capital  (including 
$22,923,749.53  for  all  existing  property) ; 

3.  Rates  of  fare  to  be  increased  within  the  maximum  if  neces- 
sary to  realize  this  profit,  and  to  be  reduced  if  not  necessary; 

4.  The  city  to  have  complete  and  continuous  supervisory  con- 
trol of  operation ; 

5.  After  eight  years  the  city  may  name  a  purchaser  to  take 
over  the  system  at  $110  per  share,  or  it  may  itself  purchase  the 
property  at  this  price  at  any  time  that  the  state  laws  permit; 

6.  Questions  of  rates  of  fare  under  the  six  per  cent,  proviso 
to  be  arbitrated. 

The  ordinance  contains  a  safety  clause  which  was  fixed 
by  an  arbitration  committee  of  lawyers  of  which  City  So- 
licitor Baker  was  one,  and  it  provides  that: 

In  the  event  that  the  section  of  the  ordinance  dealing 
with  rates  of  fare  shall  fail  in  the  courts,  including  the 
submission  of  the  rates  to  arbitration,  then  the  council 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  291 

shall  have  power  from  time  to  time  to  fix  the  rates,  not 
exceeding  the  maximum.  This  rate  must  not  impair  the 
ability  of  the  company  to  earn  sufficient  money  to  meet 
all  expenses  and  pay  six  per  cent,  dividends;  and  if  the 
company  refuses  to  turn  its  property  over  to  a  purchaser, 
when  the  city  so  decides,  then  the  council  is  given  power 
to  forfeit  the  franchise. 

After  the  Tayler  grant  was  approved  at  the  referendum 
election  the  receivers  turned  the  property  over  to  the  old 
company  and  since  March  I,  1910,  it  has  been  operated 
by  them  under  the  supervision  of  a  street  railway  commis- 
sioner appointed  by  the  mayor.  The  man  appointed  to 
this  position,  Gerhard  Dahl,  was  the  Republican  candidate 
for  city  solicitor  defeated  by  Mr.  Baker  at  the  last  mu- 
nicipal election. 

The  cars  are  still  operating  at  the  initial  rate  of  fare 
provided  in  the  Tayler  grant,  three  cents  with  a  penny  for 
transfers.*  Any  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  company 
to  raise  the  fare  has  been  promptly  discouraged  by  the 
city. 

The  work  of  our  quadrennial  board  of  appraisers  (the 
last  work  for  the  city  in  which  I  had  any  share)  was  the 
best  of  any  in  the  State  and  is  the  beginning  of  a  correction 
of  one  of  the  worst  of  taxation  injustices.  Under  the  law 
the  board  was  compelled  to  complete  its  labors  prior  to 
July  i,  1910.  Now,  for  the  first  time  since  we  com- 
menced the  taxation  fight  in  Cleveland  in  1901,  we  had 
the  machinery  for  a  perfect  performance  of  the  task  of 
assessing  the  real  estate  of  the  city,  but  we  lacked  the 
time.  The  board  was  elected  in  the  fall  of  1909  and 
instead  of  waiting  until  the  first  of  the  year  to  begin  its 

*  Appendix. 


292  MY  STORY 

work  it  organized  at  once.  W.  A.  Somers,  who  had  fur- 
nished his  system  to  us  in  1901,  was  employed  by  the 
board  as  its  chief  clerk.  The  real  estate  duplicate  as  made 
in  1900,  to  which  had  been  added  the  buildings  erected 
since,  was  now  about  one  hundred  and  eighty  million  dol- 
lars. When  the  board  of  appraisers  got  through  with  its 
labors  the  real  estate  duplicate,  exclusive  of  such  exempted 
property  as  churches  and  the  holdings  of  federal,  State  and 
municipal  governments,  reached  five  hundred  millions. 
For  the  first  time  since  Cleveland  had  ceased  to  be  a  vil- 
lage was  its  property  appraised  with  any  degree  of  fair- 
ness between  its  owners. 


To  some  who  have  followed  this  story,  it  may  seem 
that  we  have  achieved  a  comparatively  small  measure  of 
success.  I  do  not  share  this  view.  To  have  taken  more 
than  ten  millions  of  dollars  of  fictitious  value  out  of  a 
capitalization  of  thirty  millions,  as  we  did  in  the  street 
railway  fight,  to  have  established  three-cent  fare  in  the 
sixth  city  in  size  in  the  United  States,  and  to  see  that  rate 
of  fare  paying  after  two  years  of  trial  —  this  alone  is 
worth  all  the  fight  has  cost.  Municipal  ownefship  of 
street  railways  is  not  yet  possible  under  the  State  laws,  it 
is  true,  but  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  it  is  stronger  than 
ever  and  an  effort  is  being  constantly  made  to  have  the 
legislature  authorize  cities  on  their  own  votes  to  own  and 
operate  their  street  railways.  The  Cleveland  city  coun- 
cil—  a  Republican  body  —  has  just  adopted  (February 
20,  1911)  by  unanimous  vote  a  resolution  endorsing  a 
street  railway  municipal  ownership  bill  now  pending  in 
the  State  legislature.  This  resolution  was  offered  by  Mr. 


LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  FIGHT  293 

Haserodt,  one  of  our  administration  councilmen  to  whom 
previous  reference  has  been  made. 

Add  to  these  things  the  by-products  of  our  fight,  if  we 
may  so  characterize  the  beneficent  legislation  which  has  re- 
sulted from  our  agitation,  the  development  and  training 
for  practical  service  of  men  interested  in  economic  justice 
and  the  influence  of  our  movement  on  other  States  and 
other  cities.  But  the  biggest  thing  and  the  most  far- 
reaching  in  its  effects  is  the  example  we  have  given  of 
how  to  fight  Privilege.  The  same  kind  of  a  fight  carried 
on  in  any  other  city  under  similar  conditions  will  bring 
equally  encouraging  results. 

But  I  would  sound  a  note  of  warning  here.  There  is 
very  great  danger  of  having  the  best  of  movements  side- 
tracked by  the  calling  of  hard  names  and  the  personal 
abuse  of  individuals.  Tactics  of  that  kind  will  never  get 
anywhere.  Throughout  the  whole  of  our  fight  we  ad- 
hered to  our  first  plan,  which  was  to  attack  institutions  — 
Privilege,  and  not  men.  This  is  the  first  great  thing  to 
be  kept  in  mind  —  that  the  battle  is  not  a  battle  against 
persons,  but  against  unnatural  conditions,  against  a  wrong 
social  order !  The  next  important  thing  is  that  the  fight- 
ers be  armed  with  patience,  much  patience.  It  takes  as 
much  patience  to  carry  on  this  kind  of  a  warfare  as  it 
takes  stones  to  build  the  proverbial  stone  chimney. 

"  How  much  stone  does  it  take  to  build  a  stone  chim- 
ney? "  asked  someone  of  the  man  who  had  just  built  one, 
and  he  answered,  "  Haul  and  haul  and  haul  until  you 
know  you've  got  enough,  then  haul  twice  that  much  more, 
and  the  chances  are  you'll  have  about  half  enough." 

But  with  the  object  of  the  fight  well  defined,  the  line  of 
action  faithfully  adhered  to,  and  plenty  of  patience,  there 


294  MY  STORY 

is  no  reason  for  despair.  It  is  inevitable  that  those  en- 
gaged in  the  great  struggle  should  sometimes  become  dis- 
couraged. Temporary  losses  assume  an  aspect  entirely 
out  of  proportion  to  their  real  importance.  The  defeats 
of  the  moment  loom  large  and  so  obscure  the  vision  of  the 
workers  sometimes  that  they  are  not  always  able  to  see 
that  the  direction  of  the  general  movement  is  invariably 
forward.  But  it  is  a  forward  movement  and  this  is  the 
word  of  cheer  I  would  send  to  those  taking  part  in  it.  It 
is  in  the  nature  of  Truth  never  to  fail. 


Photo  by  A-Iu 

PETER  WITT 


TOM   L.  JOHNSON  NEWTON   D.    BAKER 

1910 


THE  LAST  CHAPTER 

"  Blessed  the  Land  That  Knoweth  Its  Prophets  Before 

They  Die" 

MR.  JOHNSON'S  health  was  seriously  impaired  when 
the  referendum  election  on  the  Schmidt  grant  was  held  in 
August  of  1909,  and  while  the  beginning  of  his  illness 
doubtless  dates  from  a  much  earlier  period  he  himself  re- 
garded this  as  the  time  of  the  fatal  break.  Yet  he  went 
through  his  fall  campaign  with  much  of  the  vigor,  the  fire 
and  the  good  humor  that  had  always  characterized  his 
work. 

On  election  night  when  the  returns  showed  beyond  a 
doubt  that  he  had  been  defeated  he  alone  of  the  devoted 
group  of  men  and  women  gathered  at  the  City  Hall  was 
philosophical  and  brave  and  calm.  For  men  who  were 
to  weep  unashamed,  no  matter  where  they  happened  to 
be  on  the  day  their  leader  died,  made  no  effort  to  conceal 
their  emotions  that  night.  Some  of  them  swore,  some 
of  them  cried,  some  of  them  became  ill.  Only  the  mayor 
was  very  still  and  very  gentle  and  "  sorry  for  the  boys." 

When  it  was  known  that  he  had  been  returned  as  city 
solicitor  Mr.  Baker  came  and  stood  beside  his  chief  and 
gripped  his  hand  and  said  in  a  voice  tense  with  suppressed 
feeling,  "  I  don't  know  how  I  can  do  it."  Without  a  sec- 
ond's hesitation  came  the  answer,  "  Do  it?  Of  course 
you  can  do  it.  You've  got  to  do  it.  The  people  want 
you." 

295 


296  MY  STORY 

The  mayor  insisted  upon  remaining  in  his  office  until 
early  morning  and  when  the  last  returns  were  in  and  he 
knew  that  four  out  of  five  of  his  candidates  for  the 
quadrennial  board  of  appraisement  had  been  elected,  he 
construed  this  as  an  endorsement  of  the  taxation  principles 
on  which  the  campaign  had  been  fought. 

He  had  trained  his  spirit  never  to  know  defeat  and  it 
harked  back  now,  all  unconsciously  no  doubt,  to  the  lesson 
of  the  Noah's  Ark  incident  of  his  childhood,  and  there 
were  "  two  left  anyhow." 

When  he  relinquished  his  office  to  his  successor,  Jan- 
uary i,  1910,  Mr.  Johnson  said,  "  I  have  served  the  peo- 
ple of  Cleveland  for  nearly  nine  years.  I  have  had  more 
of  misfortune  in  those  nine  years  than  in  any  other  period 
of  my  life.  As  that  is  true,  it  is  also  true  that  I  have  had 
more  of  joy.  In  those  nine  years  I  have  given  the  biggest 
and  best  part  of  me.  I  have  served  the  people  of  Cleve- 
land the  best  I  knew  how." 

Almost  immediately  after  this  'he  went  to  New  York 
for  medical  treatment,  remaining  there  until  February  6, 
when  he  returned  to  Cleveland.  He  spent  five  weeks  at 
home  all  of  that  time  under  the  care  of  a  trained  nurse. 
On  the  thirteenth  of  March  he  went  back  to  New  York, 
his  mind  fully  made  up  to  go  abroad.  He  was  no  better; 
his  physician's  prognosis  was  unfavorable,  he  was  slowly 
losing  strength  and  for  hours  each  day  was  the  victim  of 
severe  pain.  But  he  ceased  consulting  physicians,  dis- 
missed his  nurse  and  proceeded  with  the  arrangements  for 
his  voyage.  By  some  supreme  act  of  will  he  had  resumed 
the  mastery  of  himself. 

One  who  was  observing  him  closely  at  this  time  wrote 
to  a  friend,  "  A  most  remarkable  thing  has  happened. 


"  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  297 

Tom  seems  to  have  struck  rock  bottom  and  then  to  have 
lifted  himself  by  his  own  boot-straps  out  of  the  depression 
caused  by  his  illness.  His  spirit  is  in  complete  ascendancy 
over  his  body.  He  is  going  to  Europe.  Nothing  can 
stop  him." 

On  March  23,  in  company  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph 
Fels,  Mr.  Johnson  sailed  on  the  Mauretania  for  London. 
He  seemed  reasonably  well  and  enjoyed  the  voyage.  Ar- 
riving in  London  he  was  met  at  Paddington  station  by  a 
reporter,  but  he  consistently  stuck  to  the  policy  he  had 
adopted  upon  going  out  of  public  office  —  that  of  refus- 
ing to  be  interviewed  by  the  newspapers.  Mr.  Johnson 
had  several  rules  of  personal  conduct  from  which  he  sel- 
dom swerved.  One  of  these  was  never  to  speak  at  a 
meeting  or  gathering  of  any  kind  at  which  an  admission 
fee  was  charged,  and  another  was  never  to  stop  with 
friends  in  their  homes,  but  always  to  put  up  at  a  hotel. 
By  some  magic  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fels  persuaded  him  to  de- 
part from  this  last  named  rule  and  be  their  guest  during 
his  stay  in  London. 

On  April  n,  the  United  Committee  for  the  Taxation 
of  Land  Values  gave  Mr.  Johnson  a  dinner  at  the  Troca- 
dero,  one  of  London's  big  restaurants.  His  address  on 
that  occasion  was  a  fine  one,  at  least  half  of  it  being  de- 
voted to  an  appreciation  of  the  character  of  Mrs.  Fels, 
who  was,  he  said,  half  of  her  husband's  work,  giving  to  it 
not  the  mere  old-fashioned  inspiration  of  the  heart,  but 
thought. 

Just  as  he  had  insisted  upon  going  to  England  so  Mr. 
Johnson  now  insisted  upon  a  trip  to  the  continent.  Fear- 
ing that  the  contemplated  journey  might  prove  too  fa- 
tiguing friends  tried  to  dissuade  him,  but  in  vain.  He 


298  MY  STORY 

was  determined  to  go,  so  Mrs.  Fels  and  John  Paul,  editor 
of  Land  Values  and,  next  to  Mrs.  Fels,  the  closest  friend 
Mr.  Johnson  made  in  Great  Britain,  accompanied  him. 
They  made  a  ten  days'  tour  visiting  Paris,  Rouen,  Brus- 
sels, Cologne  and  Frankfort.  The  change  stimulated 
Mr.  Johnson  wonderfully.  Following  this  trip  Mr.  Fels 
and  Mr.  Paul  joined  Mr.  Johnson  in  a  few  days'  visit  to 
Glasgow,  Belfast  and  Dublin.  A  reception  was  given 
them  in  Glasgow  which  af^rded  Mr.  Johnson  an  oppor- 
tunity of  meeting  many  of  the  friends  whom  he  had  for 
years  desired  to  know  personally.  He  was  especially  at- 
tracted to  those  who  had  been  friends  of  Henry  George. 
"  He  suffered  a  great  deal  of  pain  at  times,  indeed  almost 
constantly,"  writes  John  Paul,  "  but  he  was  cheerful  and 
enthusiastic  over  the  evidence  he  witnessed  on  every  hand 
here  of  the  progress  of  the  ideas  and  the  policy  he  himself 
had  done  so  much  to  promote  in  the  United  States." 

On  April  twenty-seventh,  the  night  the  vote  on  the 
Budget  was  taken,  a  dinner  was  given  to  Mr.  Johnson  at 
the  House  of  Parliament.  He  tells  about  this  dinner  in  a 
speech  in  New  York  a  month  later,  but  fails  to  mention 
what  an  English  correspondent  tells  us  that  "  on  this  oc- 
casion all  factions  and  conflicting  opinions  were  harmon- 
ized, Mr.  Johnson  being  the  reconciling  spirit.  Josiah 
Wedgewood,  M.  P.,  presided,  and  speeches  were  made 
by  Redmond,  the  hero  of  the  Budget  fight,  Keir  Hardie, 
T.  P.  O'Connor,  Charles  Trevelyan  and  Joseph  Fels. 
Mr.  Johnson's  own  speech  was  of  the  things  nearest  his 
heart.  He  talked  but  little  of  his  work  in  Cleveland, 
dwelling  rather  on  the  outlook  for  the  final  triumph  of 
truth  and  justice,  and  expressing  his  own  profound  faith 
in  democracy.  On  the  thirtieth  of  April  he  departed  for 


"  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  299 

America,  leaving  behind  him  many  new  friends  and  a 
broadening  of  spirit  to  the  single  tax  movement  in  Eng- 
land." 

Mr.  Johnson  returned  to  New  York  on  the  Mauretania, 
arriving  May  5.  That  he  had  benefited  by  his  six  weeks' 
holiday  was  with  him  a  hope  rather  than  a  belief,  but  he 
was  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  people's  cause.  "  A  po- 
litical revolution  is  going  on  all  over  the  world,"  he  said, 
"  and  the  next  fifteen  years  are  going  to  show  great 
progress.  I'd  like  to  live  to  see  it  and  I  almost  think  I 
have  an  even  chance." 

For  months  a  self-constituted  committee  composed  of 
August  Lewis,  Bolton  Hall,  Joseph  Fels,  Lincoln  Stef- 
fens,  Frederic  C.  Howe  and  Daniel  Kiefer,  representing 
thousands  of  Mr.  Johnson's  friends,  had  been  importuning 
him  to  permit  a  demonstration  in  his  honor.  They  now 
refused  to  be  put  off  longer  and  Mr.  Johnson  gave  a  re- 
luctant consent  to  the  public  reception  and  dinner  which 
took  place  at  the  Hotel  Astor  in  New  York  City,  the  even- 
ing of  May  31,  1910.  The  interval  between  his  return 
from  England  and  the  time  of  the  dinner  he  spent  in 
Cleveland.  The  special  feature  of  the  testimonial  ban- 
quet was  the  presentation  to  Mr.  Johnson  of  a  bronze  me- 
dallion bearing  the  faces  of  Henry  George  and  Tom  L. 
Johnson  in  bas-relief  —  the  work  of  Richard  George,  the 
sculptor  and  son  of  Henry  George.  Frederic  C.  Leu- 
buscher,  president  of  the  Manhattan  Single  Tax  Club, 
presided  and  addresses  were  made  by  Herbert  S.  Bigelow 
of  Cincinnati ;  Henry  George,  Jr.,  and  John  DeWitt  War- 
ner of  New  York;  Louis  F.  Post  of  Chicago;  Newton  D. 
Baker  and  Edmund  Vance  Cooke  of  Cleveland. 

As  Mr.  Johnson  ate  nothing  he  must  have  found  the 


300  MY  STORY 

long  dinner  a  tedious  ordeal.  It  was  nearly  midnight 
when  he  was  called  upon  to  respond  to  the  addresses  which 
had  been  made  in  his  honor.  He  spoke  briefly,  saying,  in 
part: 

"  The  friendly  words  that  I  have  been  listening  to  to- 
night might  be  more  appropriate  at  a  later  time  —  when 
the  struggle  for  me  is  closed.  They  are  pleasant  to  hear, 
but  it  does  not  seem  just  fitting  while  I  am  still  with  you. 
The  bronze  medallion,  too,  in  which  I  am  associated  with 
Henry  George,  seems  more  appropriate  for  that  later 
time.  I  said  to  my  friends  when  they  first  suggested  this 
testimonial,  that  it  seemed  to  me  like  a  tribute  to  one  who 
had  completed  his  work,  who  had  finished  the  game;  but 
some  of  my  friends  said  I  was  so  near  the  end  of  the  strug- 
gle that  we  might  overlook  the  seeming  inappropriateness. 
I  don't  believe  we  are  at  the  end  of  the  struggle.  I  don't 
believe  we  have  been  in  our  last  fight  together.  But  if  I 
am  mistaken  I  have  no  regrets  —  only  that  I  might  have 
been  stronger,  more  powerful,  more  nearly  deserving  of 
the  things  that  have  been  said  about  me  to-night,  for  no 
man  can  deserve  all  those  nice  things  *  *  Since 

my  return  I  have  often  been  asked,  '  Did  the  trip  improve 
your  health?  '  I  don't  care  whether  it  did  or  not.  If  by 
taking  it  I  shortened  my  life  by  many  years  I  should  never 
regret  that  trip,  for  I  met  over  there  a  set  of  men  and 
women  who  have  kept  the  fires  burning  all  these  years, 
who  have  never  failed,  and  who  have  never  compromised 
the  truth.  I  would  have  made  that  trip  to  have  met  one 
of  those  men  —  John  Paul.  *  *  *  It  was  my  good 
fortune  to  meet  and  know  this  man  in  Great  Britain,  who, 
with  Mr.  Fels,  has  done  so  much  to  bring  our  movement 
to  the  center  of  the  stage. 


"  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  301 

"  One  night  John  Paul  said  a  suggestive  thing.  It  was 
a  sort  of  a  fable,  a  dream  —  I  don't  know  what  he  called 
it;  but  it  has  been  ringing  in  my  ears  ever  since  and  I  am 
going  to  try  to  tell  it  to  you.  *  *  *  John  Paul  said 
there  was  a  certain  river  and  that  many  human  beings 
were  in  it,  struggling  to  get  to  the  shore.  Some  suc- 
ceeded, some  were  pulled  ashore  by  kind-hearted  people 
on  the  banks.  But  many  were  carried  down  the  stream 
and  drowned.  It  is  no  doubt  a  wise  thing,  it  is  noble  that 
under  those  conditions  charitable  people  devote  themselves 
to  helping  the  victims  out  of  the  water.  But  John  Paul 
said  it  would  be  better  if  some  of  those  kindly  people  on 
the  shore  engaged  in  rescue  work,  would  go  up  the  stream 
and  find  out  who  was  pushing  the  people  into  it.  I  could 
not  help  but  follow  that  thought.  We  single  taxers,  while 
ready  to  help  pull  the  struggling  ones  out,  feel  something 
urging  us  up  the  river  to  see  who  is  pushing  the  people  into 
the  river  to  drown. 

"  It  is  in  this  way  that  I  would  answer  those  who  ask 
us  to  help  the  poor.  Let  us  help  them,  that  they  may  at 
the  last  fight  the  battle  of  Privilege  with  more  strength 
and  courage;  but  let  us  never  lose  sight  of  our  mission  up 
the  river  to  see  who  is  pushing  the  people  in.  *  *  * 

"  In  London  I  found  that  they  understood  me.  I  did 
not  know  whether  they  would  understand  me  or  not,  but 
they  looked  on  me  as  one  who  had  accomplished  some- 
thing —  and  I  was  a  friend  of  Henry  George.  They 
understood  that;  and  they  loved  me  as  you  do,  and  of 
course  that  made  me  very  happy.  In  Scotland,  at  Glas- 
gow, at  Number  Thirteen  Dundas  street,  they  gave  me  a 
banquet,  not  at  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  plate,  but  at 
'  ninepence  a  skull.'  *  *  *  Probably  the  most  en- 


302  MY  STORY 

joyable  part  of  my  trip  was  the  dinner  that  took  place  un- 
der the  House  of  Commons  in  Westminster  the  night  the 
Budget  was  passed.  It  was  attended  by  radicals  in  the 
Liberal  party  in  Parliament,  by  Irish  members  and  by 
Labor  members.  During  the  banquet  we  went  upstairs 
while  the  Budget  vote  was  taken,  and  then  came  back  for 
our  speeches.  When  we  broke  up  it  was  to  go  again  to 
the  House  of  Commons  to  hear  the  discussion  of  the  Ver- 
ney  resolution;  our  resolution,  we  single  taxers  could  say, 
for  it  declared  for  our  principles.  *  *  *  It  was  car- 
ried by  forty-three  majority. 

"  We  of  the  United  States  are  interested  in  that  strug- 
gle over  there,  not  as  outsiders  but  as  insiders.  *  *  * 
The  English  fight  seems  to  us  a  fight  where  we  are  making 
the  biggest  headway.  But  everywhere,  all  over  the 
world,  our  cause  is  moving,  so  that  those  of  us  who  twenty- 
five  years  ago  thought  it  far  off,  have  now  the  good  for- 
tune of  seeing  the  realization  of  our  dreams.  Privilege 
has  been  caught,  exposed ;  and  there  is  but  one  way  of  put- 
ting it  down,  and  that  is  by  the  doctrine  of  Henry  George. 
Abolish  Privilege !  Give  the  people  who  make  the  wealth 
of  the  world  an  opportunity  to  enjoy  it. 

"  And  now  I  come  back  from  England  and  am  invited 
to  this  gathering.  I  find  here  that  same  love  and  affec- 
tion that  I  found  abroad,  that  I  have  found  in  Cleveland. 
But  I  am  not  taking  it  as  a  personal  compliment.  I  am 
but  an  instrument,  I  am  but  an  agent  in  promoting  that 
greater  love,  that  love  of  big  things,  that  love  of  justice 
which  at  last  must  win  the  world." 

About  the  middle  of  June  Mr.  Johnson  went  to  Sias- 
conset  on  Nantucket  Island  to  spend  the  summer.  Here 
he  remained,  except  for  two  or  three  days  spent  in  New 


"  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  303 

York  on  business,  until  late  in  August.  He  made  a  friend 
of  every  man,  woman  and  child  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact.  Nearly  every  man  in  the  village  was  soon  known 
to  him  —  from  the  rich  owner  of  the  cranberry  meadows 
to  the  casual  doer  of  odd  jobs.  The  engineer  on  the  lit- 
tle steam  railroad,  the  fisherman,  the  sail  and  tent  maker, 
the  house  painter,  the  carpenter,  the  dairyman,  the  butcher, 
the  store  keeper,  the  lawyer  who  came  up  from  Boston  for 
week  ends,  the  actor  who  spends  his  summers  in  "  Scon- 
set  " —  he  knew  them  all  and  liked  them  all  and  they  all 
liked  him.  Declining  physical  strength  did  not  seem  to 
lessen  the  charm  of  manner  which  gave  him  such  a  hold 
on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  who  came  his  way. 

The  books  on  advanced  mathematics,  the  games  of 
chess,  which  he  had  employed  at  an  earlier  period  of  his 
illness  to  divert  his  mind  were  superseded  now  by  poetry 
and  fiction.  He  became  very  fond  of  several  of  Kip- 
ling's poems  and  these  were  read  and  re-read  to  him.  He 
frequently  quoted  snatches  of  poems  he  had  committed  to 
memory  years  before.  His  enjoyment  of  Kipling's  jun-, 
gle  stories  was  like  the  enjoyment  of  a  child  with  a  well- 
developed  imagination.  He  delighted  in  the  romances  of 
Sir  Walter  Scott  and  every  character  in  the  story  he  was 
reading  became  to  him  a  living  person  for  the  time  being. 
He  looked  over  the  newspaper  clippings  which  were  sent 
him  regularly  from  Cleveland  and  read  a  New  York  paper 
daily,  but  rather  as  a  duty  than  otherwise. 

He  enjoyed  the  wonderful  sunsets  over  the  Nantucket 
moors,  and  on  the  "  longest  day  in  the  year  "  arose  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  go  out,  accompanied  by  his 
attendant,  James  Tyler,  to  see  the  sun  rise  over  the  ocean. 
The  flowers  and  the  birds  of  the  island  interested  him 


3o4  MY  STORY 

He  was  on  a  little  spot  of  earth  at  last  where  there  were 
more  jobs  than  men  to  do  them,  where  health  was  the  rule 
and  where  there  was  no  poverty,  where  the  jail  had  not 
been  occupied  within  the  memory  of  several  generations, 
where  there  was  one  church  at  the  service  of  all  denomina- 
tions, where  by  means  of  the  yearly  town  meeting  the  peo- 
ple ruled.  It  was  a  good  place  for  recreation  for  a  man 
of  Mr.  Johnson's  convictions. 

His  health  improved  somewhat  under  the  stimulus  of 
outdoor  life,  though  he  continued  to  suffer  pain  and  was 
being  gradually  forced  to  a  more  and  more  restricted  diet. 
Upon  the  advice  of  his  physician  he  had  given  up  smok- 
ing months  before  and  he  never  resumed  it.  Though  he 
had  been  an  inveterate  smoker  for  years  no  word  of  com- 
plaint on  this  account,  nor,  as  one  by  one  he  was  obliged 
to  give  up  the  things  he  liked  to  eat,  escaped  him  then  or 
afterwards.  For  long  weeks  before  his  death  his  diet  of 
milk  was  varied  only  by  an  occasional  egg  or  a  few  raw 
oysters.  One  of  his  attendants,  seeing  his  suffering  in 
spite  of  all  this  precaution,  was  moved  to  remark,  "  I  wish 
I  could  bear  it  for  you."  He  summoned  a  smile  and 
answered  with  a  bit  of  ever  ready  philosophy,  "  No 
Tomlinson  in  this."  There  was  indeed  no  Tomlinson 
in  him. 

Mr.  Johnson  returned  to  Cleveland  August  28,  and  on 
that  day  decided  to  give  a  favorable  reply  to  the  publish- 
ers of  Hampton's  Magazine,  who  were  urging  him  to 
write  for  them  a  story  of  his  Cleveland  fight 

He  went  to  New  York  the  following  week,  arriving 
on  Monday,  September  5,  Labor  Day.  "  I  don't  like 
Labor  Day,"  he  said,  "  except  as  a  holiday.  These  pa- 
rades of  working  men  seem  to  proclaim  a  difference  be- 


"  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  305 

tween  them  and  the  rest  of  us  which  ought  not  to  exist. 
It  hurts  me." 

Mr.  Johnson  devoted  a  week  or  more  to  dictating  a 
magazine  article  on  the  Cleveland  movement  and  from 
this  developed  the  plan  to  have  him  tell  his  whole  story. 
He  had  this  in  mind  when  he  returned  again  to  Cleveland, 
October  8. 

The  evening  of  the  eleventh  he  paid  a  brief  visit  to  the 
Democratic  headquarters.  Commenting  on  this,  the  Plain 
Dealer  said,  "  When  Tom  L.  Johnson  walked  into 
Weber's  Hall  last  night  the  ceiling  did  not  go  up  because 
the  floor  above  held  it  down."  He  spoke  but  a  few  sen- 
tences, concluding  with  this  characteristic  one:  'While 
we  are  building  this  city  on  a  hill  let  us  never  forget  the 
one  necessity  —  that  we  must  deserve  success." 

The  next  few  weeks  were  the  most  painful  of  Mr.  John- 
son's illness.  He  was  not  able  to  proceed  with  his  writing 
for  some  time,  though  he  had  his  secretary  at  his  house 
daily  and  attended  to  his  mail  as  usual  and  to  various 
matters  of  business. 

Regardless  of  the  effort  it  cost  he  insisted  upon  going 
to  a  tent  meeting  at  which  Governor  Harmon  and  others 
were  speaking  the  evening  of  November  I.  He  was  not 
expected.  This  is  the  way  a  local  newspaper  described 
that  event:  "  For  a  second  only  there  was  a  hush.  Men 
who  had  followed  Mr.  Johnson  for  years  with  exceeding 
devotion  leaned  forward  to  make  certain  their  eyes  did 
not  deceive  them.  Then  as  the  former  mayor  mounted 
the  platform  there  was  a  demonstration  such  as  is  seldom 
seen  at  any  time.  As  the  governor  and  Mr.  Johnson 
clasped  hands  the  tent  fairly  rocked  with  applause.  Al- 
most the  entire  crowd  rose  to  its  feet  to  cheer.  Among 


3o6  MY  STORY 

portions  of  the  crowd  the  cheering  nearly  approached  a 
frenzy.  In  the  moment  or  two  that  the  former  mayor 
spoke  he  showed  his  old  time  vigor.  The  tent,  the  crowd 
and  the  flood  of  recollections  seemingly  inspired  him." 

Governor  Harmon  said  that  night  what  he  afterwards 
repeated  in  substance  to  Mr.  Johnson  in  a  letter :  "  The 
demonstration  we  have  just  witnessed  has  stirred  me  to  the 
depths  of  my  soul.  I  can  only  say  that  if  at  any  time  after 
my  service  as  governor  has  expired  and  I  appear  before 
a  body  of  citizens  of  my  State  and  there,  without  the  pow- 
ers of  office,  without  the  possibility  of  bestowing  favors, 
I  shall  receive  such  a  testimonial  as  you  to-night  have 
given  your  old  fighting  leader,  I  will  consider  that  life  cer- 
tainly has  been  well  worth  living." 

On  November  7,  Mr.  Johnson  voted  early  and  busied 
himself  for  the  remainder  of  the  day  much  as  he  had  been 
wont  to  do  in  the  days  of  his  strength,  receiving  election 
returns  at  his  apartment  in  the  Knickerbocker  in  the  even- 
ing. The  next  day  he  commenced  to  write  his  story.  He 
did  his  last  work  on  it  March  14,  1911,  the  day  before  he 
was  attacked  by  the  acute  illness  which  was  to  terminate 
in  death. 

Mr.  Johnson  left  Cleveland  but  once  after  he  returned 
in  October  and  that  was  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Pels 
Fund  Commission  in  New  York  in  November.  Louis  F. 
Post's  account  of  Mr.  Johnson's  participation  in  that  meet- 
ing, written  especially  for  this  story,  follows: 

"  To  friends  who  had  not  seen  Mr.  Johnson  since  tne  days  of 
his  health  and  strength  his  wasted  appearance  was  discouraging. 
But  to  me  the  contrast  was  not  with  his  days  of  health.  It  was 
with  periods  in  the  course  of  his  illness,  and  I  thought  the  signs 
were  hopeful.  In  no  respect  were  they  more  manifestly  so  than 


1  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  307 

in  the  clearness  of  perception,  and  the  responsibility  and  direct- 
ness of  utterance,  with  which  he  participated  in  the  deliberations 
of  the  Commission.  Here  he  was  altogether,  except  in  vim,  at 
his  wisest  and  best. 

"We  met  him  in  Cleveland,  November  17,  1910.  Those  who 
gathered  there  were  Daniel  Kiefer  (chairman  of  the  Fels  Fund), 
Fenton  Lawson  of  Cincinnati,  Doctor  Wm.  P.  Hill  of  St.  Louis, 
W.  S.  U'Ren  and  W.  G.  Eggleston  of  Oregon,  George  A.  Briggs 
(one  of  the  commission)  of  Indiana,  myself  of  Chicago,  and 
James  W.  Bucklin  of  Colorado.  A  loyal  friend  of  Tom  L. 
Johnson's  for  twenty  years,  Bucklin  was  formerly  a  state  senator 
of  Colorado  and  a  distinguished  one;  he  has  long  been  a  leader 
in  the  Henry  George  movement;  he  was  an  attendant  at  the 
first  single  tax  conference,  in  New  York,  and  at  the  second,  in 
Chicago;  and  he  was  the  father  of  the  "  Bucklin  Bill  "  in  Colo- 
rado (a  single  tax  amendment)  and  of  the  Grand  Junction  plan 
of  commission  government.  Mr.  Johnson  personally  conducted 
the  party  —  which  A.  B.  du  Pont  and  Peter  Witt  had  then  joined 
for  the  purpose, —  through  the  du  Pont  subway.  He  did  it  with 
almost  all  the  enthusiasm  of  his  days  of  intensest  interest  in 
mechanical  inventions. 

"  On  the  railroad  train  that  night  he  gathered  us  into  his  state- 
room, as  many  of  us  at  a  time  as  it  would  hold  (as  James  Tyler 
can  testify),  for  he  wanted  the  companionship  and  the  conversa- 
tion. He  said  very  little,  but  he  listened  with  manifest  interest; 
and  what  he  did  say  showed  his  unabated  hunger  for  news  and 
thought  about  the  cause  that  had  won  his  lifelong  devotion  nearly 
thirty  years  before. 

"  Oregon  had  just  voted  upon  the  county-option-tax  amend- 
ment, now  in  force  in  that  State  and  which,  thanks  in  part  to  the 
Fels  Fund,  is  to  be  utilized  next  year  for  a  single  tax  campaign 
in  every  county.  This  measure  had  been  proposed  by  Thomas  G. 
Shearman  as  early  as  1888,  and  had  been  then  embraced  and 
always  afterward  advocated  by  George  and  Johnson  as  the  best 
means  for  promoting  the  single  tax  cause  in  this  country.  The 


3o8  MY  STORY 

result  of  the  Oregon  vote  was  not  yet  known,  but  Mr.  U'Ren's 
account  of  the  campaign,  which  had  been  financed  largely  by  the 
Fels  Fund,  was  particularly  interesting  to  Mr.  Johnson.  All  the 
more,  perhaps,  because  the  introduction  through  friendly  channels 
into  the  Oregon  campaign  of  two  nominally  friendly  but  (under 
the  local  circumstances  at  that  time)  really  inimical  amendments, 
must  have  reminded  him  of  a  kind  of  Big  Business  method  of 
opposition  which  he  had  encountered  in  his  Ohio  contests  with 
Privilege.  It  was  probably  in  part  an  identification  in  his  mind 
of  these  subtle  tactics  in  the  two  States  as  the  same  in  origin  that 
caused  him  to  make  the  only  speech  I  heard  him  make  at  the 
public  meeting  of  the  Fels  Fund  two  or  three  days  afterwards. 
His  sustained  interest  in  the  result  of  the  Oregon  election  on  the 
county  option  tax  amendment  may  be  inferred  from  his  message 
to  Bucklin  and  me  on  our  way  home  through  Cleveland.  Having 
heard  in  New  York,  as  we  all  had,  that  the  amendment  had  been 
defeated,  but  learning  from  Edward  W.  Doty  on  returning  to 
Cleveland  that  there  were  vague  newspaper  reports  to  the  con- 
trary, he  sent  Arthur  Fuller  down  to  our  train  as  it  passed 
through  Cleveland  later  than  his  own,  to  tell  us  what  he  had 
learned  from  Mr.  Doty  and  to  ask  what  we  knew  about  it.  We 
knew  nothing  then,  but  his  news  was  soon  confirmed.  The 
county  option  tax  amendment  had  carried.  It  was  the  other  two 
that  had  been  defeated. 

"  In  committee  consultations  at  his  rooms  in  the  Prince  George 
Hotel  after  our  arrival  in  New  York,  Mr.  Johnson  had  little  to 
say;  but  his  mind  was  alert,  and  whenever  he  did  say  anything 
he  went  directly  to  the  point  and  without  irritation  or  personal 
feeling.  In  all  our  twenty-five  years  of  cooperation  in  the  same 
cause  I  never  knew  him  to  be  irritable  in  conference  or  public 
speech,  nor  to  be  moved  by  personal  animus,  and  in  the  Fels  Fund 
conference  he  was  in  those  respects  his  old-time  self. 

"  When  he  spoke  at  the  public  meeting  of  the  Fels  Fund,  in 
the  rooms  of  the  Liberal  Club,  he  did  so  because  matters  had 


(f BLESSED  THE  LAND"  309 

taken  a  shape  which  in  his  judgment  precluded  his  remaining 
silent.  He  recognized  obstructive  influences  of  the  same  charac- 
ter and  apparent  origin  as  some  he  had  encountered  in  his  nine 
years'  fight  against  Privilege  in  Ohio.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  task 
for  him  to  speak  of  this,  but  as  he  saw  the  matter  it  was  his 
task  if  anyone's,  and  he  did  not  shirk.  There  was  no  unkindness 
toward  individuals,  either  in  what  he  said  or  in  his  way  of  saying 
it.  He  made  no  accusation  of  bad  faith  against  anyone  immedi- 
ately concerned.  His  suggestions,  on  the  contrary,  were  of  good 
faith  played  upon  from  outside.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
there  any  weak  holding  back  of  facts  he  thought  his  associates 
ought  to  know.  He  spoke  deliberately,  frankly,  and  without  any 
spirit  of  personal  unfriendliness  toward  anybody,  just  as  in  public 
speaking  he  had  been  accustomed  to  do ;  yet  with  the  characteristic 
force  and  clearness  of  statement  which  never  left  anyone  in  doubt 
of  what  he  meant.  The  parallels  he  drew,  and  which  were  of 
the  substance  of  his  speech,  were  to  the  effect  that  whenever  he 
had  encountered  the  outlying  influence  he  mentioned,  it  came  in 
the  form  of  a  proposal  of  what  he  described  as  '  something  differ- 
ent, just  a  little  different,'  from  the  movement  it  seemed  to  him 
designed  to  obstruct  or  divert. 

"  Those  who  saw  Tom  L.  Johnson  as  he  made  that  speech, 
having  known  him  before  his  illness  and  seeing  him  then  for  the 
first  time  since  his  health  had  broken,  thought  of  him  reasonably 
enough  as  of  one  whose  physical  strength  had  hopelessly  gone; 
but  no  one  who  had  ever  known  him  well,  could  have  heard  him 
then  without  realizing  that  the  man  himself  was  there  in  all  his 
mental  and  moral  vigor.  Had  I  closed  my  eyes  so  as  to  shut 
out  the  emaciated  body,  and  but  listened  to  the  voice  and  followed 
the  thought,  I  think  he  would  have  seemed  unchanged  to  me. 
In  that  speech  I  recognized  as  of  old  the  vigor  of  voice  and 
thought  and  phrase  and  sense  of  responsibility,  of  the  same  Tom 
L.  Johnson  who,  coming  over  to  Henry  George  in  the  early 
eighties,  followed  him  until  death,  and  then  good-humoredly  but 


3io  MY  STORY 

relentlessly,  regardless  of  friends,  fearless  of  foes,  irrespective  of 
fortune  and  of  victory  or  defeat,  took  the  lead  in  fighting  Privi- 
lege in  its  varied  moods,  from  subtle  to  ferocious,  for  nine  memo- 
rable years  in  Ohio." 

On  January  6,  1911,  Mr.  Fels  and  Mr.  Kiefer  visited 
Cleveland  as  one  of  the  points  on  their  Western  tour  in 
the  interests  of  the  single  tax  propaganda.  A  public  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  auditorium  in 
the  evening.  Dr.  Cooley  presided  and  Mr.  Fels,  Dr. 
Eggleston  of  Oregon,  Newton  D.  Baker  and  Mr.  John- 
son were  the  speakers.  And  so  it  happened  -that  Mr. 
Johnson's  last  participation  in  a  public  meeting  was  in  be- 
half of  the  cause  so  near  his  heart.  The  hall  was  crowded 
and  here  in  the  very  citadel  of  his  old  time  enemy  he  re- 
ceived such  an  ovation  as  could  not  but  gladden  the  heart 
of  anyone.  As  he  looked  at  the  cheering  crowd  before 
him  he  said,  "  This  does  not  look  like  the  old  tent,  but  it 
sounds  like  it."  He  spoke  simply  and  directly  as  usual, 
and  eloquently  as  he  always  did  when  the  single  tax  was  his 
theme.  His  voice  was  clear  and  distinct  with  a  fullness  of 
tone  that  had  been  absent  for  a  long  time.  His  closest 
friends  might  well  have  been  deceived  by  his  apparent 
strength,  and  those  who  knew  that  this  was  probably  the 
last  time  he  would  make  a  speech  rejoiced  exceedingly  in 
the  nobility  of  the  sentiments  he  enunciated  that  night  and 
in  the  power  manifested  in  their  utterance. 

On  February  6,  owing  to  contagious  illness  in  his  own 
family,  Mr.  Johnson  was  ordered  by  his  physician  to  leave 
the  family  apartment  in  the  Knickerbocker  until  all  dan- 
ger of  infection  was  past.  He  therefore  moved  to  White- 
hall, an  apartment  hotel  on  the  edge  of  one  of  Cleveland's 
most  beautiful  parks.  He  was  suffering  less  at  this  time, 


"  BLESSED  THE  LAND  "  311 

the  peritonitis  which  was  said  to  be  the  cause  of  his  pain 
having  evidently  subsided.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  he 
was  under  the  constant  care  of  a  physician  and  the  daily 
visits  of  his  doctor,  to  whom  he  became  greatly  attached, 
added  greatly  to  his  comfort. 

His  interest  in  current  happenings  revived.  He 
watched  the  newspapers  for  every  bit  of  political  news, 
especially  that  which  had  to  do  with  the  State  legislature  at 
Columbus.  He  looked  forward  with  eagerness  to  the 
week-end  visits  of  Senator  Stockwell,  who  brought  him 
details  of  activities  which  he  could  not  get  from  the  press. 
Magazine  articles  on  social  and  political  questions  inter- 
ested him  as  they  never  had  done  before.  Book  after 
book,  short  stories  without  number  were  read  to  him,  and 
in  the  very  last  days  Ernest  Crosby's  poems  pleased  him 
most  of  all.  His  correspondence  with  friends  in  Great 
Britain  was  one  of  his  diversions,  his  interest  in  British 
politics  never  abating. 

On  March  eleventh  Mr.  Johnson  attended  as  a  guest  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Nisi  Prius  Club,  which  is  to  Cleve- 
land what  the  Gridiron  Club  is  to  Washington.  Its  mem- 
bership is  composed  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the  city. 
Mr.  Johnson  went  down  to  the  Hollenden  hotel  early  in 
the  day  and  took  a  room,  where  he  rested  until  the  time  for 
the  programme  following  the  dinner  arrived,  and  then  he 
went  to  the  banquet  hall  in  another  part  of  the  hotel  to 
enjoy  the  fun.  His  three  closest  friends,  the  men  who 
were  with  him  almost  daily  during  the  last  two  months 
of  his  life  and  who  had  been  associated  with  him  so  inti- 
mately and  for  so  long,  A.  B.  du  Pont,  Newton  Baker  and 
Billy  Stage,  were  there,  but  this  was  not  an  assemblage  of 
Mr.  Johnson's  followers.  It  was  a  gathering  of  repre- 


312  MY  STORY 

sentatives  of  the  privileged  interests  of  the  community. 
Men  who  had  fought  Mr.  Johnson  in  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  on  the  stump,  in  court,  through  the  newspapers 
and  on  Cleveland's  streets  made  up  the  majority  of  that 
gathering.  Yet  with  hardly  an  exception  every  man 
present  shook  hands  with  Mr.  Johnson  that  night  and  ex- 
pressed his  good  will.  Perhaps  they  understood,  as  they 
saw  him  now,  so  sweet  of  spirit,  so  serene,  so  far  removed 
from  the  influences  of  human  passion  and  worldly  strife, 
that  after  all  he  never  had  fought  them,  that  the  war  he 
had  waged  with  such  relentless  power  had  been  directed 
not  against  individuals,  but  against  "  a  wrong  social  or- 
der," an  order  which  makes  victims  no  less  of  the  masters 
than  of  the  slaves.  Perhaps  they  had  a  glimmer  of  that 
larger  understanding  which  had  distinguished  Mr.  John- 
son for  so  many  years.  He  returned  to  his  apartment  at 
Whitehall  the  next  morning  literally  radiant  with  happi- 
ness. Once  more  and  for  the  last  time  his  body  had  been 
subjugated  to  his  all  but  invincible  will. 

He  was  attacked  by  acute  nephritis  the  night  of  March 
14,  and  though  he  had  subsequent  periods  of  rallying 
death  was  galloping  towards  him  now  and  he  knew  it. 
His  anxiety  was  not  that  it  was  approaching  so  fast,  but 
that  it  might  be  too  long  delayed.  He  was  at  peace  with 
the  world.  If  it  still  held  enemies  for  him  he  did  not 
know  it.  He  had  no  regrets,  for  he  had  no  hates.  He 
had  fought  a  good  fight,  he  had  done  a  day's  work,  and 
he  was  very  tired.  This  extreme  exhaustion  mercifully 
passed  some  hours  before  he  became  unconscious.  A 
night  and  a  day  of  unconsciousness  preceded  the  end.  He 
emerged  from  it  once  only  long  enough  to  say  with  a 
smile  and  a  sigh,  "  It's  all  right.  I'm  so  happy."  Heart 


"BLESSED  THE  LAND"  313 

action  and  respiration  ceased  at  the  same  instant  at  thir- 
teen minutes  before  nine  o'clock  the  evening  of  April  10, 
1911. 

The  simplest  of  funeral  rites  were  performed  by  his 
friends  Harris  R.  Cooley  and  Herbert  S.  Bigelow  two 
days  later.  "  Two  hundred  thousand  persons  saw  Tom 
L.  Johnson's  last  journey  through  Cleveland,"  said  the 
Cleveland  Leader.  "  The  heart  of  the  city  stopped  for 
two  hours  while  the  simple  cortege  passed  through  the 
lines  of  silent,  grief  stricken  men  and  women  on  its  way 
from  the  Knickerbocker  apartments  to  the  Union  station. 

*  *     *     Flags  were  at  half  mast,  buildings  were  deco- 
rated with  crepe  and  pictures  of  the  former  mayor  edged 
with  mourning  were  displayed  in  most  of  the  windows 
along  the  streets   traversed  by  the   procession.     Public 
buildings  and  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  were  closed. 

*  *     *     Men,  women  and  children  from  every  walk 
of  life  comprised  the  vast  assemblage  who  came  to  bid 
their  former  mayor  a  last  farewell.     That  his   friends 
were  legion  was  evidenced  by  the  respectful  lifting  of  hats 
by  all  who  were  close  to  the  passing  cortege.     It  was  not 
alone  the  women  who  wept.     Tears   flowed  down  the 
cheeks  of  many  men  who  made  no  effort  to  wipe  them 
away,  but  gazed  with  streaming  eyes  on  the  carriage  con- 
taining their  friend." 

The  next  day  all  that  was  mortal  of  Tom  L.  Johnson 
was  laid  in  a  grave  in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn, 
beside  that  of  his  master  teacher,  Henry  George. 


(Out  of  consideration  for  Mr.  Johnson's  freely  expressed  dis- 
like of  foot  notes  all  such  notes  have  been  omitted  from  his  book, 
the  few  which  seemed  necessary  being  assembled  here  instead.) 

Chapter  V,  page  47.  See  Congressional  Record  of  January  8, 
1895  — "  Honorable  Tom  L.  Johnson  of  Ohio  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  The  Money  Question." 

Chapter  X,  page  89.  "  During  Tom  Johnson's  business  life 
in  steel  his  emphatic,  radical  beliefs  and  policies  brought  him  fre- 
quently into  trouble,  and  at  times  even  into  financial  danger.  I 
could  speak  of  more  than  one  close  crisis  where  the  choice  prac- 
tically lay  between  all  the  financial  help  he  needed  for  his  business 
enterprises,  to  be  won  by  stultifying  himself  in  his  political  faith, 
or,  as  an  alternative,  financial  opposition  which  at  the  time  looked 
as  though  it  would  be  fatal." — From  a  newspaper  interview  with 
Arthur  J,  Moxham  of  Wilmington,  Delaware,  April  II,  Ipli. 

Same  chapter,  page  90.  "  By  1895  the  works  were  completed 
and  put  into  operation  at  Lorain,  Ohio.  The  location  of  the  new 
plant  at  this  point  excited  bitter  comment  on  the  part  of  Pitts- 
burgh steel  men,  as  it  involved  practically  moving  from  the 
Pittsburgh  district  to  the  new  location,  a  step  that  could  only  be 
justified  by  belief  in  the  greater  advantage  of  the  lake  shore  as  a 
steel  center. 

"  Subsequent  events,  such  as  the  contemplated  construction  of 
a  large  steel  plant  by  the  Carnegie  interests  at  Conneaut,  Ohio, 
one  of  the  elements  that  determined  in  some  measure  at  least 
the  purchase  of  the  Carnegie  interests  by  the  United  States  Steel 
Company;  such  as  the  location  of  the  latest  and  largest  plant  of 
the  United  States  Steel  Company  at  Gary,  Indiana,  on  the  lake 
shore,  and  still  more  the  success  of  the  Lorain  Steel  Company, 

315 


3 1 6  MY  STORY 

now  owned  by  the  United  States  Steel  Company,  have  confirmed 
the  foresight  and  wisdom  that  prompted  this  step." —  Same  inter- 
view. 

Same  chapter,  page  91.  "In  1898  the  steel  plant  and  busi- 
ness were  sold  to  the  Federal  Steel  Company.  The  original  hold- 
ings of  the  Federal  Steel  Company  consisted  of  two  plants,  the 
Illinois  Steel  Company  at  Chicago,  and  the  Lorain  Steel  Com- 
pany at  Lorain,  Ohio,  and  properties  on  the  lakes  and  the 
connecting  railroads.  As  is  known  the  Federal  Steel  Company 
was  the  precursor  and  practically  the  originator  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Company." — Same  interview. 

Chapter  XII,  page  108.  See  Congressional  Record  of  August 
24,  1893 — "  Honorable  Tom  L.  Johnson  of  Ohio  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  on  Silver." 

Chapter  XIX,  page  205.  The  following  State  laws  in  which 
Mr.  Johnson  was  interested  were  enacted  by  the  Ohio  Assembly 
which  adjourned  in  April,  1911: 

Nonpartisan  Judiciary  —  a  bill  providing  that  the  names  of 
nominees  for  all  judicial  offices  shall  appear  on  the  ballot  without 
party  designation  of  any  kind. 

Direct  Election  of  United  States  Senators  —  a  bill  embodying 
the  Oregon  plan  which  provides  for  the  direct  nomination  and 
election  of  senators.  Members  of  the  legislature  are  required  to 
sign  one  of  two  statements  —  the  first,  pledging  them  to  vote  for 
that  man  for  senator  who  receives  the  most  votes  at  the  regular 
election,  or  the  second,  refusing  to  be  so  bound.  Under  this  plan 
a  Republican  legislator  may  vote  for  a  Democrat  for  senator,  or 
a  Democratic  legislator  for  a  Republican. 

Nonpartisan  Constitutional  Convention  —  a  bill  requiring  all 
delegates  to  the  constitutional  convention  of  1912  to  be  nomi- 
nated and  elected  on  a  strictly  nonpartisan  basis;  nominations  to 
be  made  by  petition  only. 

Shorter  Workday  for  Women  —  a  bill  limiting  the  hours  of 
women  employed  to  fifty-four  hours  a  week,  with  not  more  than 


APPENDIX  317 

ten  hours  in  any  one  day.  (Amended  from  eight  hours  as  pro- 
vided in  original  bill.) 

Workingmen's  Compensation  Act  —  a  bill  creating  a  State  com- 
pensation fund,  from  which  money  shall  be  paid  employes  injured 
and  dependents  of  employes  killed  at  their  work. 

Municipal  Initiative  and  Referendum  —  a  measure  requiring 
thirty  per  cent,  of  the  voters  of  a  municipality  for  the  initiative 
and  fifteen  per  cent,  for  the  referendum.  Covers  "  ordinances 
and  resolutions  granting  a  franchise,  creating  a  right,  involving 
the  expenditure  of  money  or  exercising  any  other  power  delegated 
to  a  municipal  corporation  by  the  General  Assembly." 

Corrupt  Practices  Act  —  a  measure  regulating  the  amount  of 
money  a  candidate  may  spend,  and  throwing  other  safeguards 
around  elections. 

Chapter  XXV,  page  291.  On  May  23,  1911,  G.  M.  Dahl, 
street  railway  commissioner  of  Cleveland  ordered  the  Cleveland 
Railway  Company  to  stop  charging  passengers  a  penny  for  trans- 
fers. The  order  was  given  under  the  terms  of  the  traction 
ordinance  which  require  that  whenever  a  balance  in  the  interest 
fund,  less  proportionate  accrued  payment  to  be  made  therefrom, 
shall  be  more  than  $500,000  by  the  amount  of  $200,000  fares 
shall  be  reduced  from  the  existing  rate  to  the  next  lower  rate 
provided  by  the  ordinance.  The  street  railway  company  resisted 
the  order,  but  on  May  29  the  city  council  adopted  a  resolution 
compelling  it  to  comply,  and  straight  three-cent  fare  became  ef- 
fective June  i,  1911,  less  than  two  months  after  the  death  of 
Mr.  Johnson. 


INDEX 


AKERS,  W.  J.,  114;   117;   273. 
Andrews,  Horace  E.,  86;   87;   88; 

243;   251;   252;   253;   254;   255; 

256;    259;    260;    261;    277;    287. 
Armstrong,  W.  W.,  61. 

BAKER,  Newton  D.,  126;  139;  172; 

173;  193;  194;  216;  247;  256; 

257;  258;  269;  289;  290;  291; 
295;  299;  310;  311. 

Barber    Asphalt    Company,    191. 

Beacon,   M.  W.,   163;   217;   242 

Beaver,  James  A.,  42. 

Bemis,  Edward  W.,  132;  139;  156; 
180-181. 

Big  Con,  86;  159;  190.  (See  Con- 
con.) 

Bigelow,    Herbert    S.,    196;    299; 

3i3- 

Blue  Spring,  Ky.,  J's  birthplace,  i. 
Bly,  Yankee,   123. 
Bowman,    Thomas,    68. 
Boyd,  William  H.,  207;  208;  209; 

273. 

Breckinridge,   John   C.,  4. 
Briggs,    George   A.,    307. 
Brooklyn,    street    railways,   98-107. 
Bryan,     William     Jennings,     xvii; 

54;    65;    108 ;   200. 
Buckeye    Club,    168. 
Bucklin,  James  W.,  307 ;   308. 
Burton,  Theodore  E.,  xvi;   61 ;   62; 

74;     114;     116;     nominated    for 

mayor,    267 ;     quoted,    268 ;     his 

platform  quoted,  269;  270;  271; 

273 ;    defeated,  274-275. 

CABLE,  Ben  T.,  70;  72;  223. 
Cadwallader,    Starr,    170. 
Cambria  Iron  Company,  29;  36. 
Carnegie,   Andrew,   77. 


Chamber  of  Commerce  (Cleve- 
land), xxiii;  75;  90;  113;  116; 
171;  267;  288;  312;  313. 

Charity,  menace  of,  28 ;  fund  for 
Johnstown  sufferers,  difficulty  in 
disposing  of,  41-42;  responsi- 
bility for  causes  that  call  for, 

43-44- 

Chicago  Journal,  quoted,  243-246. 

Choate,   Joseph   H.,  98. 

Churchman,    F.    M.,    16. 

Cincinnati  Traction  Company,  238. 

Citizens  Savings  &  Trust  Com- 
pany, 262. 

Clark,   Samuel  B.,  98. 

Clarke,  John  H.,  200;  202. 

Cleveland  Belt  &  Terminal  Rail- 
road, 134. 

Cleveland  Electric  Illuminating 
Company,  192;  216;  217. 

Cleveland  Electric  Street  Railway 
Company,  164;  188;  209;  235; 
238;  239;  243;  248;  251;  252; 
253;  254;  255;  256;  259;  260; 
261;  263;  264;  274;  276;  278; 
279;  281;  283.  (See  Concon.) 

Cleveland,   Grover,   70;    73. 

Cleveland  Railway  Company,  279 ; 
283;  284;  286;  287. 

Cleveland  Terminal  &  Valley 
Railroad,  133. 

Coffinberry,    Henry  D.,   172. 

Coleman,   Dullie,  J's   aunt,   10. 

Coleman,  Thomas,  J's  uncle,  9. 

Columbus  Street  Railway  Com- 
pany, 156. 

Colver,  W.  B.,  224;  240;  246. 

Concon,  86;  190;  221;  223;  224; 
225;  227;  230;  232;  233;  237; 
240;  241;  242;  247;  250;  256; 
257;  258;  259;  262;  264;  266; 
275;  277;  278;  282;  283. 


319 


320 


INDEX 


Cooke,  Edmund  Vance,  299. 
Cooley,  Harris  R.,   109;   no;   172; 

i73-r79;     l835    *93J    269;    272; 

31°;   3i3- 

Cox,   "Boss,"   164;   185. 
Craig,    William,    130;     133;     136; 

137. 

Crawford,  W.  J.,  129. 
Currency,  J's  substitute  for  during 

panic,  45-46;   need  of  improved 

laws  relating  to,  47. 

DAHL,    Gerhard,   291. 

Dalzell,   John,   76;   77. 

Davenport,   Homer,  271 ;    272. 

Davies,   Secretary,   256. 

Daykin,   Dr.,   214-215. 

De  Leon,  Daniel,   52. 

Depositors  Savings  &  Trust  Com- 
pany, xxi ;  brief  history  of,  265. 

Dick,   Charles   S.,   200. 

District  of  Columbia,  report  of 
house  committee  on  reforms  in 
assessment  and  taxation,  65-67. 

Doty,  Edward  W.,  308. 

Dunne,  Edward  F.,  239;  243;  244; 
245;  246;  256. 

du  Pont,  A.  B.,  92;  224;  239;  240; 
248;  251;  252;  253;  254;  260; 
261;  262;  280;  307;  311. 

du  Pont,  Alfred    V.,    9;    13;    31; 

32;   37J   3> 
du  Pont,  Bidermann,    9;    n;     12; 

14;   92. 
du  Pont  (E.      I.),      de      Nemours 

Powder   Company,   9. 
du  Pont,  Pierre    Samuel,    9. 
Earhart,   W.    H.,    197. 
East  Ohio  Gas  Company,  213;  214. 
Eggleston,   W.   G.,   307;    310. 
Electric    Traction    Weekly,   quoted, 

284. 

ENGLISH,  William  H.,  13;  14;  15; 

28. 
Everett,    Henry,    23;    86;    87;    88; 

9i;    92;   93;   94- 

FARLEY,  John,  113;  118. 
Federal    Steel    Company,    90. 
Fels   Fund   Commission,   306;   307; 
308. 


Fels,  Joseph,  297;  298;   299;   300; 

310.     (See    Fels    Fund    Commis- 
sion.) 
Fels,  Mrs.  Joseph,  297 ;  J's  tribute 

to,  297;   298. 
Fithian,   George  W.,   68. 
Ford,  Judge,   242. 
Forest     City     Railway     Company, 

222;    224;    227;    228;    230;    234; 

235;    237;    238;    240;    241;    242; 

246;    248;    261;    262;    263;   279; 

283;   286;   287. 
Free  Trade,  J.  declares  his  belief 

in,  60;   71;   73;   76;  78-81. 
Fuller,    Arthur,    308. 

GARFIELD    Corrupt    Practices    Act, 

IIO-IIZ. 

Garfield,   James  A.,  267;   268. 

General  Electric  Company  in  re- 
lation to  "Slip-Slide,"  xxxi; 
xxxii. 

George,  Henry,  dedication,  xxvi; 
8;  9;  28;  49;  50;  J's  first  inter- 
view with,  51;  death  of,  52;  53; 
quoted,  54;  55;  quoted,  56; 
quoted,  57;  quoted,  58;  59;  60; 
63;  64;  73;  76;  78;  107;  108; 
112;  298;  299;  300;  301;  302; 

307;    309;    3^3-. 
George,   Henry,  jr.,   299. 
George,  Richard,  299. 
Goff,   F.   H.,   190;   277;   278;   279; 

282;  283;  288. 
Goulder,    Harvey    D.,    171;     172; 

273- 

"Greased  lightning."  (See  "Slip- 
Slide.") 

Green,   Albert,   187;   188;    189. 

Greif,  William,  224. 

Guilbert,    State   Auditor,    199. 

HALL,  Bolton,  299. 
Hampton's  Magazine,   304. 
Hanna,  Marcus  A.,  17-25;  28;  86; 

88;    114;    115;    164;    185;    189; 

191;  194;  196;  198;  201;  quoted, 

202 ;   203 ;   228. 
Hardie,  J.  Keir,  298. 
Harmon,  Judson,  xvi ;  305 ;  quoted, 

306. 
Harriman,   Edward   H.,    102 ;    103. 


INDEX 


321 


Harrison,  Benjamin,   64. 
Harter,    Representative,    63. 
Haserodt,   E.  B.,  269 ;   293. 
Hauser,  Elizabeth  J.,  editor.     (See 

acknowledgment;      introduction; 

last  chapter.) 
Henna,  Dr.,  52. 
Herrick,  Myron  T.,  134;  135;  200; 

201 ;   206. 

Hill,  William  P.,  307. 
Hindman,  T.  C.,  2;  4. 
Hodge,   O.  J.,   62. 
Hoefgen,    J.    B.,    160;    161;    grant 

to  declared  invalid,  162. 
Hogsett,    Thomas,    192;    194. 
Howe,    Frederic   C.,   quoted,   xxiv; 

121 ;  204;  216;  224;  299. 

INGERSOLL,  Robert  G.,  74-75. 
Initiative,   xvi;    119;    199. 
Injunctions,     record     of     in     street 

railroad   fight,   164-166. 
Ivins,  William  M.,  57;  quoted,  58. 

JOHNSON,  Albert,  brother  of  J.,  3; 
57?  86;  91;  98. 

Johnson,  Albert  W.,  father  of  J., 
i ;  service  to  Confederacy,  2 ; 
quarrels  with  Gen.  Hindman 
and  joins  Gen.  Breckinridge,  4; 
sympathy  with  North,  5 ;  at- 
tempts to  operate  cotton  planta- 
tion in  Arkansas  with  free 
labor,  7;  engages  in  business  in 
Evansville,  Ind.,  7 ;  superintend- 
ent of  street  railroad  in  Louis- 
ville, ii ;  chief  of  police,  n; 
president  of  street  railway  com- 
pany in  Indianapolis,  14;  shares 
in  profits  of  sale,  31;  friendship 
with  Henry  George,  55;  123. 

Johnson,  Maggie  J.,  J.  marries,  13. 

Johnson,  Richard   M.,    59. 

Johnson,  Tom  L.,  advocates  initia- 
tive, referendum,  recall,  short 
ballot,  woman  suffrage,  juster 
laws  on  taxation,  municipal 
ownership  and  city  home  rule, 
xvi;  interview  with  President 
Roosevelt,  xvii ;  conversation 
with  W.  J.  Bryan,  xvii;  applies 
merit  system  to  city  departments, 


Johnson,  Tom  L.  (continued). 
xviii ;  summary  of  improvements 
and  reforms  while  mayor  of 
Cleveland,  xviii,  xix;  hissed  in 
Brooklyn,  xx,  56 ;  manner  and 
method  before  an  audience,  xx, 
xxi ;  accedes  to  strikers'  de- 
mands, xxii;  favors  labor 
unions,  xxii ;  invents  pay-enter 
fare-box,  xxii ;  enmity  of  news- 
papers, xxiii,  xxiv;  a  friend's 
estimate  of,  xxvii,  xxviii ; 
"Slip-Slide,"  xxviii-xxxii ;  de- 
fines Privilege,  xxxv;  discusses 
monopolies,  xxxv-xxxvii;  judic- 
iary and  Privilege,  xxxviii; 
public  ownership  of  utilities, 
xxxix;  parentage,  birthplace, 
early  recollections,  i ;  family 
moves  to  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  3 ; 
to  Atlanta  and  Milledgeville, 
Ga.,  4;  to  Corner  Springs,  With- 
ville,  Natural  Bridge  and 
Staunton,  Va.,  5 ;  typhoid  fever, 
5;  first  business  venture,  5,  6; 
moves  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  6; 
early  instruction,  6;  moves  to 
Arkansas,  thence  to  Evansville, 
Ind.,  7 ;  return  to  Kentucky,  7 ; 
freedom  from  class  feeling,  7; 
enters  street  railroad  business 
in  Louisville,  8;  lives  with  Cole- 
man  family,  9;  duties,  learns 
bookkeeping,  invents  fare-box, 
10;  secretary  of  company,  super- 
intendent of  road,  n;  marries, 
13;  purchases  control  of  Indian- 
apolis street  railways,  13;  liti- 
gation and  disputes  with  Wm. 
H.  English,  13-16;  bids  for 
street  railway  grant  in  Cleve- 
land, 17;  buys  Pearl  street  line, 
introduces  transfer  system,  19 ; 
contests  with  M.  A.  Hanna,  17- 
25;  buys  Jennings  ave.  line,  22; 
gets  grant  to  build  east  side 
lines,  24;  refuses  Raima's  offer 
of  partnership,  25 ;  on  private 
as  against  municipal  ownership 
of  public  utilities,  25-27;  goes 
into  business  at  Johnstown,  29; 
establishes  plant,  31 ;  profits  on 


322 


INDEX 


Johnson,  Tom  L.  (continued). 
sale  of  street  railroad,  31;  ven- 
tures in  St.  Louis  and  Brooklyn, 
32;  builds  rolling-mill,  33; 
builds  steam  railroad  and  buys 
street  railways  in  Johnstown, 
34;  removes  bodies  of  victims 
of  flood,  38;  discusses  free  street 
cars,  39-40;  blames  Privilege 
for  Johnstown  flood,  43-44;  sub- 
stitute for  currency  during 
panic,  45-46;  need  for  better 
currency  system,  47 ;  reads 
Social  Problems  and  Progress 
and  Poverty,  49 ;  urged  by 
Henry  George  to  enter  politics, 
51;  at  George's  death-bed,  52; 
first  attempts  at  public  speak- 
iog»  53 »  advocates  change  in 
Ohio  tax  laws,  54;  backs  Cleve- 
land Recorder,  54;  suffers  in 
1897  panic,  54;  aids  The  Public, 
55 ;  manages  George's  campaign 
for  mayor  of  New  York  in 
1897»  56;  nominated  for  Con- 
gress, 59 ;  declares  belief  in  free 
trade,  60;  defeated  by  Burton, 
61 ;  again  nominated,  61 ;  de- 
bates with  Burton,  62;  elected, 
62;  again  nominated  and  elected 
over  O.  J.  Hodge,  62;  votes  for 
single  tax  bill,  63;  approves 
"Reed  rules,"  63-64;  acquaint- 
ance with  Harrison,  64;  with 
Bryan,  65;  committee  work  in 
Congress,  65 ;  reform  in  assess- 
ment and  taxation  in  District 
of  Columbia,  65-67 ;  distributes 
Protection  or  Free  Trade  at 
government  expense,  68-70;  dele- 
gate to  national  convention,  70; 
visit  to  Grover  Cleveland,  73 ; 
predicts  defeat  of  Democratic 
parry;  defeated  for  reelection 
by  Burton,  74;  replies  to  charge 
of  insincerity,  75 ;  credit  to 
George  for  letter  to  Cleveland 
cloak-makers,  78;  the  letter,  79- 
81;  tent  meetings,  82-84;  meets 
Peter  Witt,  84-86;  the  Cleve- 
land street  railway  situation, 
86-88 ;  sells  street  railway  in- 


Johnson,  Tom  L.  (continued}. 
terests,  88 ;  his  social  philosophy 
alienates  friends,  89 ;  expands 
scope  of  Johnstown  mill,  builds 
mill  at  Lorain,  90;  sells  out, 
90;  builds  street  railroad  Lorain 
to  Elyria,  91 ;  manages  Detroit 
street  railways,  91 ;  rebuilds 
them,  92;  convinced  of  prac- 
ticability of  three-cent  fare,  95 ; 
friendship  with  Pingree,  95- 
97 ;  manages  Brooklyn  street 
railways,  98 ;  litigation,  98-99 ; 
gets  grant  for  Brooklyn  Bridge 
line,  102;  Harriman  suggests 
alliance,  103;  sale  of  Brooklyn 
roads,  103-105 ;  interview  with 
R.  T.  Wilson,  106;  takes  steps 
to  quit  business,  106-107;  de- 
termines to  devote  energies  to 
advancement  of  George's  prin- 
ciples, 107;  trip  to  Europe,  108; 
delegate  to  national  convention, 
108;  opposed  to  "  16  to  i,"  108; 
views  on  the  money  question, 
108 ;  nominated  for  mayor, 
109-110;  standards  of  political 
morality,  m;  declines  to  bar- 
gain for  support,  111-112; 
platform,  112;  the  campaign, 
112-116;  sues  to  prevent  con- 
summation of  corrupt  council's 
grant  of  lake  front,  113;  elected 
mayor,  116;  sworn  in,  117;  se- 
cures repeal  of  lake  front  grant, 
118;  his  first  two  orders,  120; 
organizes  better  element  of 
council  for  good  government 
and  chooses  cabinet,  121 ;  in- 
stitutes reforms,  122-125 ;  estab- 
lishes Tax  School,  125 ;  its 
purpose  and  accomplishments, 
126-131 ;  tax  valuation  of  steam 
railroads,  132-144;  taxation  of 
public  utilities,  145-147;  home 
rule,  147-149;  source  of  rail- 
roads' power  and  remedy  for 
its  abuse,  149-155;  invited  to 
Columbus,  156;  offers  to  buy 
street  railways  there  and  give 
three-cent  fare,  156;  makes 
charge  against  Judge  Summers, 


INDEX 


323 


Johnson,  Tom  L.  (continued). 
1ST,  tne  three-cent  fare  fight  in 
Cleveland  and  the  more  than 
fifty  injunctions,  159-166;  mak- 
ing men,  167-171 ;  enmity  of 
antagonized  interests,  170-171 ; 
campaign  of  1903,  170-172; 
elected  over  Goulder,  172;  on 
Newton  D.  Baker,  173 ;  on  Har- 
ris R.  Cooley,  with  outline  of 
his  accomplishment,  173-179;  on 
William  J.  Springborn,  179-180; 
on  Daniel  E.  Leslie,  180;  on 
Edward  W.  Bemis,  180-181;  on 
Fred  Kohler,  181-184;  quotation 
from  address  to  new  city 
council,  186-187;  another  step 
towards  low  fare,  187;  destroys 
paving  combine,  191 ;  fight  for 
municipal  lighting  plant,  192- 
194;  reason  for  belief  in  munic- 
ipal ownership,  194;  State  wide 
campaign  for  just  taxation,  195- 
198;  opposes  renomination  of 
Democratic  legislators  who  vio- 
lated pledges,  196-198;  nomi- 
nated for  governor,  199;  serves 
as  police  court  judge,  200;  cam- 
paign by  automobile  and  in 
tent,  200-202 ;  defeated,  203 ; 
measures  fought  for  since  en- 
acted into  law,  204;  again 
elected  mayor,  207 ;  debates  with 
Boyd,  208-209 !  advises  street 
railway  to  build  line  without 
grant,  209 ;  municipal  owner- 
ship of  street  railroads,  211- 
212;  types  of  legislators,  212- 
213;  gas  franchise  fight,  213- 
216;  method  secondary  consider- 
ation in  securing  people's  rights, 
216;  municipal  lighting  plant 
and  annexation  of  South  Brook- 
lyn, 216-218;  public  gambling, 
219-220;  the  fight  for  low  fare, 
221-263;  recognition  of  Mr. 
Cable's  services,  223;  organiza- 
tion of  Municipal  Traction  Com- 
pany, 224;  contempt  proceed- 
ings, 227-228;  the  monument  he 
cared  for,  236;  motorman  of 
first  three-cent  fare  car,  238; 


Johnson,  Tom  L.  (continued). 
history  of  Depositors  Savings  & 
Trust  Co.,  265 ;  renominated  for 
mayor,  269 ;  invites  Burton  to 
debate  issues,  269-270;  Daven- 
port's visit,  272;  reelected, 
274;  proposes  settlement  of 
difficulties  with  street  railway 
company,  276-277 ;  chosen  by 
council  to  represent  city  in 
negotiations,  277-278 ;  street 
railway  strike,  280-282;  people's 
blunder,  283 ;  comment  on  ref  er- 
endum,  283 ;  protects  Forest  City 
stockholders'  interests,  287 ;  on 
the  morality  of  newspapers,  288 ; 
defeated  for  reelection,  289; 
result  of  effort  to  correct  taxa- 
tion injustices,  291-292;  conclu- 
sions, 292-294;  quoted  upon  re- 
linquishing office,  296;  sickness 
and  visits  to  New  York,  296 ; 
trip  to  Europe  with  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Joseph  Fels;  rules  of  per- 
sonal conduct;  public  dinner: 
tribute  to  Mrs.  Fels,  297;  Conti- 
nental tour;  Glasgow  reception; 
dinner  at  House  of  Parliament, 
298 ;  return  to  United  States ; 
reception  and  dinner  in  New 
York,  299 ;  address  quoted,  300- 
302;  "abolish  Privilege,"  302; 
summer  at  Nantucket  Island, 
302-304;  his  reading,  303;  de- 
cides to  write  story  of  Cleveland 
fignt>  3°4>  his  reception  by 
Cleveland  audience,  305-306 ; 
attends  meeting  of  Fels  Fund 
Commission  in  New  York,  306 ; 
account  by  Louis  F.  Post,  306- 
310;  last  public  meeting,  310; 
interest  in  British  politics,  311; 
guest  of  Nisi  Prius  Club,  311; 
final  attack  and  death,  312-313; 
funeral,  public  demonstration, 
interment,  313. 

Johnson,   Will,   brother  of  J.,   3. 

Johnstown,  Pa.,  28;  flood  and 
period  of  readjustment,  34-42; 
responsibility  for  disaster,  43- 

44- 
Jones,  Bill,  36-37. 


3^4 


INDEX 


Jones,  Samuel  M.,  203;  206;  207. 
Judiciary,   Privilege's  power   over, 
xxxviii. 

KIEFER,  Daniel,  299;   307;   310. 
Knappen,  Judge,  284. 
Kohl,   Councilman,  214;   215. 
Kohler,   Fred,   123;    181-184;   218; 
219. 

LABOR  Unions,  J.  favors,  xxii;  re- 
lation of  to  Cleveland  street 
railway  strike,  280-282. 

La  Follette,  Robert  M.,  41. 

Lamb,  John  E.,  72. 

Land  Monopoly,  the  root  of  Priv- 
ilege, xvii;  xxxvi;  33. 

Land  Values,  298. 

Lapp,  Charles  W.,  172;  269. 

Lavell,  Pat,  37. 

Lawson,   Fenton,   307. 

Leader \  Cleveland,  114;  271;  272; 
quoted,  313. 

Leslie,  Daniel  E.,  172;   180;  269. 

Leubuscher,  Frederic  C.,  299. 

Lewis,  August,  299. 

Lincoln,   Abraham,   5. 

Lindsey,   Ben   B.,    i. 

Little  Con,  86;  116;  159;  190. 
(See  Concon.) 

Loftin  (Johnson),  Helen,  mother 
of  J.,  i ;  J's  estimate  of,  3 ;  gives 
J.  his  early  instruction,  6. 

Lorain,  Ohio,  J.  builds  mill  at,  90. 

Low  Fare  Company,  242 ;  246 ; 
247;  248;  262;  263;  266. 

McArxx),  William  Gibbs,  4. 

McCabe,   William,   52. 

McClure,    A.    K.,    his    book,    Our 

Presidents   and  How   We  Make 

Them,  quoted,  73. 
McGlynn,    Father,    52. 
McGuire,  Judge,  63. 
McKinley  Act,  71;    74. 
Madigan,  J.  P.,  172;  216. 
Manhattan   Single  Tax  Club,  299. 
May   Company,    120. 
Merit  System,  xxviii. 
Monopolies,     J.     discusses,     xxxv- 

xxxvii.     (See    also   Privilege.) 
Morrell,  D.  J.,  30-31. 


Moxham,  Arthur  J.,  29;  30;  31; 
elected  dictator  of  Johnstown, 
Pa-.  35;  37;  38;  42;  49!  50. 

Municipal   Association,  The,   171. 

Municipal  Home  Rule,  xvi;  147; 
"  the  most  pressing  of  all  civic 
problems,"  148;  187. 

Municipal  Ownership,  xvi;  ad- 
vantages of,  26-27;  city's  only 
safeguard,  94;  96;  first  trans- 
portation line  under,  99 ;  prac- 
tical demonstration  of  benefits, 
too;  J's  efforts  to  establish  city 
lighting  plant,  191-194;  evils  it 
would  abolish,  211-212;  grow- 
ing sentiment  favorable  to,  292. 

Municipal  Traction  Company,  xxi; 
224;  234;  239;  246;  250;  251; 
280;  282;  283.  (See  Threefer.) 

NAU,  Carl  H.,  269. 

Neal,  Lawrence  T.,  70;  72. 

Neutral    Street   Railway,   279. 

Nichols  Law,   146. 

Nickel  Plate  Road,   136;   137. 

Nisi  Prius  Club,   311-312. 

O'CONNOR,   T.   P.,   298. 

O'Day,  John,  214. 

PAUL,  John,  298;  quoted,  298; 
300;  301. 

Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company, 
43;  113;  123. 

Pilcher,  Joe,   i. 

Pingree,  Hazen  S.,  91;  92;  93;  94; 
95-97;  108. 

Plain  Dealer,  Cleveland,  61 ;  113; 
quoted,  146;  quoted,  188;  quoted, 
193;  quoted,  255-256;  quoted, 
305- 

Pomerene,  Atlee,  xvi. 

Porter,  Albert  G.,  13. 

Post,  Louis  F.,  52;  quoted,  53;  edi- 
torial writer  on  Cleveland  Re- 
corder, 54;  establishes  The  Pub- 
lic, 54;  299;  account  of  J's  trip 
to  Fels  Fund  Commission  meet- 
ing in  New  York,  306-310. 

Press,  Cleveland,  114;  editorial 
from,  228-229;  statement  of  con- 
cerning guarantee,  230-232;  edi- 
torial from,  232-233;  259. 


INDEX 


325 


Press  Post,  Columbus,  156. 

Private  Ownership  of  Public  Util- 
ities, evils  of,  25-26. 

Privilege,  J's  address  on,  xiii ;  land 
monopoly  root  of,  xvii;  J.  de- 
fines, xxxv ;  far-reaching  effects 
of,  xxxvi;  power  over  judiciary, 
xxxviii;  cure  to  be  effected 
through  economic  change,  xxxviii- 
xxxix;  uses  people's  savings  to 
oppress  them,  15;  as  typified  by 
patent  laws,  29 ;  other  types  of, 
33 ;  responsible  for  Johnstown 
flood,  44;  60;  its  way  of  reason- 
ing, 76;  80;  86;  poverty  the  re- 
sult of,  89;  90;  its  fight  against 
Pingree,  91;  its  methods,  93- 
94;  107;  108;  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce sides  with,  113;  ignores 
party  lines,  114;  115;  118;  at 
the  root  of  corrupt  government, 
125 ;  143 ;  147 ;  control  of  tax- 
ing machinery  greatest  power 
of,  149;  150;  remedy  for,  151- 
iSS;  IS*?  *59;  163;  164;  169; 
170;  171;  177;  188;  195;  203; 
206;  seeks  to  accomplish  ends 
through  councils,  212;  influences 
judiciary  and  secures  services 
of  best  lawyers,  247 ;  its  power 
to  delay  progress,  250;  its  dis- 
regard for  public  interests,  260; 
263 ;  perpetuates  itself  with  sav- 
ings banks  deposits,  267;  274; 
282;  288;  293;  301;  George 
doctrine  only  way  to  end,  302. 

Progress  and  Poverty,  49 ;  50. 

Protection,  60;  denounced,  71; 
77-81. 

Protection  or  Free  Trade,  9 ;  J. 
distributes  free  copies  of,  52; 
reprinted  as  quotations  in  Con- 
gressional Record,  68-69;  70; 

Public  Ownership,  xxxix;  of  road- 
beds solution  of  railroad  prob- 
lem, 151-153.  (See,  also,  Mu- 
nicipal Ownership.) 


RECALL,  xvi;   119. 

Recorder,  Cleveland,  J.  backs,  54. 


Reed,  Thomas  B.,  quoted,  63-64; 
quoted,  74. 

Referendum,  xvi;  119;  199;  elec- 
tion, 282;  election,  288;  election, 
290. 

Reilly,  John,  43. 

Rickey,   H.  N.,  232. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  xvii;  267; 
268;  274. 

Root,  Elihu,   98;   quoted,  99. 

Russell,  L.  A.,  49;   50. 


SANDERS,  Judge,  247. 

Schmidt,   Herman,   287 ;    288. 

Schmidt  Law,  278;   279. 

Scripps,  E.  W.,  231;  232;  233. 

Scripps  Publishing  Company,  230; 
231. 

Shearman,  Thomas  G.,  54;   307. 

Sheets,  Attorney-General,  140; 
141;  146;  163;  192;  194. 

Short  Ballot,  xvi. 

Simms,  Elias,  17;  18;  19;  20;  22; 
23;  227. 

Simpson,   Jerry,    63;    64;    68. 

Single  Tax,  55;  bill  in  Congress, 
63;  "the  only  just  tax,"  66-67; 
what  it  is  and  what  it  would  do, 
I54-I55»  J's  influence  on  move- 
ment in  England,  299 ;  "  Bucklin 
Bill,"  307.  (See,  also,  George, 
Henry;  Land  Monopoly;  Taxa- 
tion of  land  values;  titles  of 
books  by  George.) 

"  Slip-Slide,"  J's  invention  de- 
scribed by  F.  C.  Howe,  xxviii- 
xxxii. 

Socialism,  151;  Hanna  on,  202- 
203. 

Social  Problems,  49. 

Somers,  W.  A.,  devises  unit  sys- 
tem of  taxation,  128;  292. 

Sontheimer,    Solomon,    172. 

South    Brooklyn,    Ohio,    216-218. 

South  Fork  Hunting  and  Fishing 
Club,  43. 

Special  Privilege.  (See  Privi- 
lege.) 

Springborn,  William  J.,  121 ;  172; 
179-180;  193;  227-228;  269. 

Stage,  Charles  W.,  224;  311. 


326 


INDEX 


Standard  Oil  Company,  154;  195; 

213;  214;  215;  216. 
Steel  Rail  Pool,  76-78. 
Steffens,  J.  Lincoln,  estimate  of  J., 

xx ;    299. 
Stockwell,    John    N.,    quoted,    xiv; 

3x1. 

Stone,  William  J.,  68. 
Summers,  A.   N.,   157;   158. 

TAFT,  William  H.,  267;  268. 

Tammany  Hall,  57. 

Tariff,  33;  71;  73-755  76-**- 

Taussig,  J.  E.,  134;   135. 

Taxation  of  land  values,  discus- 
sion of  in  District  of  Columbia, 
65-67.  (See,  also,  Single  Tax.) 

Tax  School,   125-131. 

Tayler   Grant,   290;    291. 

Tayler,  Robert  W.,  237;  284;  ad- 
dress to  city  council  quoted, 
285-286;  288;  289. 

Threefer,  225;  241;  250;  262; 
280. 

Tracey,   Representative,    63. 

Trevelyan,    Charles,    298. 

Tuckerman,    Dr.,    115. 

Tyler,  James,   303;   307. 

UNION  Club,  171;  266. 

United  States  Steel  Company,  90. 

U'Ren,  W.  S.,  307. 


VILAS,  William  F.,  70;  72. 
Vorhees,   104 ;    105. 

• 

WADSWORTH,   James,   65. 
Warner,  John   DeWitt,  63 ;   299. 
Warrington,   John   W.,    237 ;    238 ; 

247. 
Washington,   D.   C.     (See   District 

of   Columbia.) 

Washington,  Joseph  E.,  65;  68. 
Watterson,   Henry,  70;  72. 
Wedgewood,    Josiah,    298. 
Wells,  Representative,   197;   198. 
Westenhaver,    D.    C.,    247. 
White,   John   G.,  285;   287. 
Whitlock,  Brand,  207. 
Whitney,   William   C.,   quoted,   73. 
Widener-Elkins   Syndicate,   196. 
Wiebenson,    Edward,    224. 
Williams,  Charles  D.,  xxiii. 
Wilson  Bill,  73;   74;   75;    78. 
Wilson,   Richard   T.,   91;   92;   93; 

98;  quoted,  106;   108. 
Wilson,  William  L.,  72. 
Witt,  Peter,   75;   84-86;   115;    126; 

181;   203;   218;    256;    257;   258; 

259;  273;  274;  3°7; 
Woman  Suffrage,  xvi. 
Wright,  Mr.,  zoo. 

ZMUNT,  J.  B.,  187. 


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